Forgive and Forget?
by Smeg699
Summary: How things might have happened if Beca had left after Semi-Finals during her first year at Barden and never looked back. Now in LA, the successful DJ/music producer has an unexpected run-in with one of the girls who abandoned her six years before. How will Beca deal with having to face someone who abandoned her all those years ago? Will she be able to forgive and forget?
1. An Unexpected Encounter

**_A/N:_** Hey everyone! I'm back with something new. This idea came to me because of something Redlance-ck mentioned in their fic Experimentation (which if you haven't checked out by the way, you really should). I'll post what that thing was in the next chapter because it might spoil things a bit in this one. Needless to say I'm still working on my other things, Nocturnal should get an update here soon, and who knows what else may be coming. Zap wanted to say a little something here, so...

 **Zap's Note:** Sorry folks, I'm a horrible person I know. I've had this for awhile but kept getting distracted by other things like this weird need to become unconscious for hours on end, plus Star Trek Online and going to town for groceries. It should have been out much sooner and I can't apologize enough. I'm hella tired, so FSM only knows what I let slip. Blame there still being mistakes on me. I'm writing, I don't know when more of anything will come.

I'd also like to point out that this title is very much a work in progress. I'm not thrilled with it, but I wanted to post it anyway, so we'll let it stick for now. Let me know if you have any ideas for different names.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this. Please leave a review and tell me what you liked and didn't like. It's the only way we get better, right?

* * *

 **An Unexpected Encounter**

 _Six Years Earlier – The Barden Bellas Rehearsal Hall, Barden University_

Excitement buzzed through the air as the seven freshmen Barden Bellas danced gleefully in their chairs. Every single one of them had been through an emotional rollercoaster over the last couple of weeks. From the high point right after their performance at the Semi-Finals, to their lowest point just after Beca walked out and they found out they had come in third place. Walking out of the music hall after their defeat had been heartbreaking, and even Aubrey hadn't had the heart to criticize anyone after having ripped Beca up one side and down the other. Most of them were surprised, however, when they got onto the bus and found that not only was Beca missing, but all of her stuff was gone too. Aubrey, meanwhile, had simply ignored it and moved into her own seat, also ignoring the curious glances that nearly everyone had for Beca's empty seat and missing bag. The ride home was for most of them the worst thing they'd ever experienced.

Which made the elation that they felt when a week and a half later they had gotten a call from Aubrey saying that the Footnotes had been disqualified and that they, as third place and first alternates, were going to Lincoln Center for the Finals. All seven of the girls were talking excitedly, hyped up and ready to see what changes their captains, Aubrey and Chloe had in store for them to shake things up for finals. Only one, the buxom brunette, noticed that their tiniest and grumpiest fellow was absent, but just assumed that Beca was running late as was her norm.

When Aubrey strode excitedly into the room the girls' chatter got softer, but didn't stop entirely. The blond senior took note of how excited everyone was and felt a sense of triumph and empowerment fill her. Taking a handful of papers from her bag she noticed that Chloe had yet to show up, but didn't think much of it as she stepped in front of the girls sitting in the tiered seats before her.

"Ok!" She said, standing by the railing, the papers she held shaking slightly in her own excitement. As the group before her got even quieter she started to hand out the papers, the plans she'd so meticulously drawn up over the last week in order to ensure that their set list was on point. Handing a small stack of papers to Amy and CR, who took one and passed them along to the others she continued, "The aca-gods have looked down on us and they have given us a second chance!"

A frisson ran through the group as the girls giggled excitedly, thrilled to see their captain so energized. They knew that, whatever was coming, it was going to be great. As they were passing the papers out, Chloe strode into the room. The redhead walked with purpose, she had a goal for the day, one she hadn't bothered to discuss with Aubrey who was still stuck on the old set list. But after seeing a video of the performance while she was recovering from her surgery, and conveniently away from Aubrey imposing her views on everyone around her, the ginger had realized how Beca's additions had actually improved things. People in the audience, the few she could see from the camera angle, had perked up and taken not of things. And even the commentators, those two people from the ICCA board, had seemed more interested after Beca had broken in and layered her singing with Aubrey's.

A second and third watch through had followed… What could she say, recovery had taken a long time and Chloe needed to have something to entertain herself with, right? By the third watch through Chloe was feeling thoroughly depressed and extremely guilty. She hadn't realized at the time just how much of a difference Beca's performance had made. She had known that the short freshman was into DJing and stuff, they'd talked about it often enough outside of Bellas practices, but to have her pull something like that off on the fly in the middle of a performance was astounding.

Before she could really start to get down on herself, however, she had gotten the message from Aubrey. And Chloe knew, she'd just known instinctively, that it was a sign. And that's why the first thing she'd done after hearing from Aubrey that they were back in and that Bree would be calling the rest of the Bellas was to text Beca.

As she walked into the room and saw that the short brunette wasn't there, however, she realized that she'd never actually gotten a response back from her. She'd been so busy the last couple weeks with her physical therapy and vocal coach that she hadn't given it much thought. But she knew Beca's propensity for being late was pretty extreme, so she put it out of her mind as she heard the tail end of Aubrey's little speech.

"Shalom!" Fat Amy said in response, pumping her fist into the air. She saw the girls starting to look over the papers and had a feeling that many of them would soon realize what she had. Nothing was changing. Well, there was no time like the present to start that change.

"I texted Beca." She said simply as she walked past Aubrey. As expected, the blond froze for a second. Chloe knew that she was probably about to start a fight. But Beca's words after the semi-final performance made her realize that maybe a fight was just what they'd needed. She'd always just gone along with Aubrey's decisions, even when she disagreed with them. Well, either she was co-captain and her thoughts and opinions matter just as much as Aubrey's, or she was just a nobody on the team… And she wasn't sure if she wanted to keep on taking Aubrey's shit if that was the case.

"You did what?" Aubrey's voice conveyed astonishment and indignation. Just as Chloe had expected. Turning to face her best friend in the whole world, her best friend who could be the biggest controlling bitch ever at times, Chloe stopped and looked straight at her. She wasn't going to back down this time. This time she was going to win, and then they were going to win.

"She makes us better." She said back to Aubrey, a basic fact that she needed Aubrey to recognize. She didn't need to turn around to know that others agreed with her, Stacie, CR, and Fat Amy for sure. They just had to confront Aubrey and get her to realize it. Then when Beca walked in, maybe they could get over everything and figure out a way to win Finals.

"That's not an opinion for you to have, Chloe." Aubrey said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. The blond had fought with her every step of the way regarding Beca, so she wasn't even the slightest bit surprised that her tenacious blond friend was still putting up a fight. Well, it was time for the kid gloves to come off…

"Why? Because it's not yours?" She could almost imagine Aubrey recoiling mentally as she spoke. The blond had gotten so used to Chloe just doing whatever she suggested that she must have forgotten how the ginger had been during their freshmen, sophomore, and junior years. Deciding one more was needed, Chloe went on without pause and added, "You're not always right, you know?"

Of course, Aubrey could be just as stubborn and bullheaded as she was. So she wasn't surprised that the blond kept on trying to move forward with her plan. Aubrey took one of the packets she'd made and handed it to her with a nod that made it seem as though she'd already won the argument and said, "We will win without her!"

"Ummm…" Someone behind them said. Stacie, if Chloe wasn't mistaken. And she obviously didn't really seem that anxious to be interrupting the argument between them. When both herself and Aubrey had focused her attention on the buxom brunette, it was apparent she wasn't about to say the best news. Hunching her shoulder slightly, Stacie looked sympathetically at Chloe as she said quietly, "Beca's gone…"

Everything seemed to stop in Chloe's head as the words crashed down upon her. Time seemed to come to a grinding halt. The air around her seemed to have solidified, and sound seemed impeded in some odd way so that the rest of what Stacie said felt as though it crawled into her ears.

"Beca left Barden like a week ago."

* * *

 _Six Years Later. Los Angeles, California._

Beca felt the tension she'd been carrying in her shoulders start to melt away the instant she stepped inside the lobby of Serenity Spa. In an odd way, it shocked her every time it did too. There was a reason she'd had a regular appointment here every Friday for over a year. But even still, she was amazed at how walking into the spa alone was enough to start relaxing her.

Especially considering how much she hated having people touch her, even to this day.

Still, she'd found that there were a few instances where she didn't mind people touching her. Female people, at any rate. And ever since that damned accident back in the day, well, spa trips had become a thing in her life that she had, surprisingly, adjusted to fairly quickly. After a prescription written by her doctor. Then a strongly worded recommendation by her doctor. Then her doctor almost kidnapping her and dragging her to meet the massage therapist….

Then maybe going through 15 different masseuses at three different spas.

But she totally was into letting people put their hands all over her now.

Walking up to the front counter she saw that Cindy was behind the reception desk and smiled at the woman. Cindy was middle aged, a decade or two Beca's senior, but acted like her big sister sometimes and her grandmother at others. It was a strange relationship she had developed with the woman over the last year or so of coming here.

"Hey there, Beca." The blond woman greeted her as she heard Beca's boots clomping their way across the tiled lobby. She was already typing on the keyboard when Beca sidled up to the counter and leaned against it. Without looking up from the screen she said, "It's always a delight having you in at the end of the day. You're all checked in, so head on in and Carla will meet you in there in a few minutes."

Beca nodded, threw Cindy another quick smile before turning on her heels and heading towards the lady's side of the spa to change. By now she was basically a pro at this, but it had definitely squicked her out the first few times she'd come in and had to take off all her clothes. To say nothing of the "treatments" they made her go through. Well, ok, that was like the tenth time she was here that she finally acquiesced to that, but they pushed hard the first few times.

Walking over to her locker, yeah she was that much of a regular that she basically had her own locker reserved for her, Beca started taking off her clothes as quick as she could. Once she was stripped down to her birthday suit she took the bikini from the locker and quickly got dressed in it before pulling on the extra fluffy robe stamped with the twined S's that were the spa's logo and tied it shut securely. Once decently covered again, she reached in and grabbed the waterproof mp3 player she always left in her locker and dropped it into her pocket.

She'd have put the earplugs in and started listening but she knew that she'd just be interrupted. And in fact, just a minute or so after she'd slid her feet into the flip flops she heard the door to the spa open up and heard a quiet, "Miss Mitchell?"

"Come on in, Carla, I'm decent." Beca called out, knowing that even as many months after the fact now the hysterical screaming she'd done when Carla had walked in that first time before she was completely robed had left a mark on the steward. She really didn't think she'd screamed hysterically, but Ricardo Vallencia, the owner of the spa, had had some serious work to do to calm the poor, panicked Carla down afterwards. She'd only been a little surprised, really…

"It's always so good to see you, Ms. Mitchell. Especially as the last customer of the day." The older Filipina woman said as she stepped fully into the changing room and offered Beca her usual cup of cool water.

"Well, you know me, Carla, I like it here when there's as few people as possible." Beca said, gratefully accepting the water and sipping it down. She murmured her approval of the faint apple taste and followed the elderly lady out into the spa proper.

"Oh, I know, sweetie. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed that Mr. Vallencia has started taking an appointment at this time, but only for a very select few customers." Carla said, walking out to where the various treatment facilities were located.

Beca let her gaze roam the room for a minute, deciding what she wanted to do as she continued to drink the water. Sauna, for sure, and that meant the steam room too. Then maybe the hot tub before Donna came out to get her. Yeah… That was a good plan, nothing too complicated, which was definitely what Beca needed right then. Less complications in her life.

"Well, I think it's probably better for everyone involved if I stick to these late evening appointments, don't you?" Beca said with a chuckle. Carla returned the chuckle with a wide, genuine smile. At least they could laugh about things nowadays. "Though I do sometimes feel like I'm inconveniencing you guys, especially Donna."

"Oh Ms. Mitchell, don't you worry about it. You're never an inconvenience to anyone." Carla said, patting her arm gently as the moved to the middle of the room where Carla paused. She then half turned in Beca's direction, a curious quirk to her eyebrow as she surveyed the young woman.

"Don't you even dare think of it. I'm not going to try that foul contraption again…" Beca said, raising an admonitory finger at the older lady with a glare for extra measure. She'd known what Carla was about to suggest, she had been selling it hard for the last few months, but the one time Beca had tried it, it had just about ripped her top right off. And that was on an earlier appointment too so there was a couple sitting just a few feet away in the soaking tub.

Granted Beca had come to LA hoping to get some exposure and break out… But she'd really been hoping to break out into the music industry, not out of her top in public. Ever since that incident she'd avoided the so called "pressure shower" like the plague.

"I think I'll just do some sauna time, then hit the steam room, then jump in the hot tub." Beca said, handing over her empty cup. Carla took it with a smile and gestured for Beca to head to the sauna as she turned towards where the refreshment station was to fill it up again. They were all about hydration here, Beca had noticed that right away, but she supposed it was better than the Red Bull, coffee and liquor she usually lived on so…

Pausing outside she waited a moment until Carla came back before handing over her robe in exchange for a refilled cup. With a wry smile for the elderly Filipina who shot a grin back, Beca reached out to take hold of the door to the sauna. Opening the door she was hit in the face with a blast of air so hot it felt like she was walking into an oven. By the time she'd stepped inside her skin was already dotted with sweat. Gingerly she took a seat on the middle level, not quite ready yet for the top level, on one of the towels resting on the bench.

She'd have thought, after a year in Georgia followed by five years here in LA, that a little heat wouldn't bother here that much. However a glance at the thermometer on the wall showed her it was well over 120 degrees in the sauna, and that was blistering even for LA. Of course, that was the point of it, at least that's what they'd told her when they first suggested it. Something about opening her pores up, or something. Beca just knew that it was effing hot.

It had grown on her, though. Slowly, inching its way into her life. Nowadays she barely went a week without getting into a sauna, usually here at the spa, but she was seriously considering looking into having one built into her place. If there was one thing she'd learned from the accident it was that the weekly massages she'd initially had to be forced into going to had become just about the best part of her weeks.

After spending hours in meetings with executives at the record company she worked at, followed by even more hours in the booth behind the sound board trying to force whiny, arrogant, egotistical artists into believing her when she said that she really did know a thing or two about producing music she needed something. And yeah, sex was always a great break, but even after all her time in the business, and especially since her name had become a household item, at least among the elite of the music industry, she still wasn't completely comfortable with picking up randoms at a bar for sex. And seeing as she was currently quite single, with no plans otherwise, she would simply have to rely on her own skills in that particular area.

Moving up to the top level Beca laid back, resting her head on a rolled up towel on the bench and let the blisteringly hot air wash over her as though she was a Beca shaped pie baking in the oven. As she got settled in a laying position up top, after taking a healthy swallow of the apple flavored water, she thought about how her car accident had possibly been one of the best things to happen to her. The music industry was, to say the least, stressful at the best of times. And Beca would be the first person to admit that she wasn't easy to get along with. But she was right.

She hadn't realized until about a month after she started seeing the massage therapist post-accident how much shit she carried around with her that had just built up as tension in her back and shoulders. After her four weeks of prescribed massage therapy was over, she'd immediately sat down with Ricardo and scheduled regularly weekly massages. Sometimes more than weekly if it was a stressful time, like Grammy season or something. Thankfully they were nowhere near Grammy season presently, but she had still had a hell of a week, and today had been the capstone.

After about fifteen minutes in the blistering head inside the sauna, and moving once more towards the end to take a seat on the lower level, Beca emerged into the still essentially empty treatment room and saw Carla over by the coolers which held the various flavored waters of the day. Which was perfect, because Beca had finished off the last of her water about five minutes before she'd decided to leave the sauna, and by the evidence of sweat slicking her bare skin she knew that she could use another glass or two to rehydrate.

She paused for a moment after stepping out of the sauna partially to adjust to the seemingly frigid temperatures, though she knew it was probably about 75 in the room, and also to marvel at the fact that her thinking had shifted so much in the time she'd been coming here that "rehydrating" was even a word in her vocabulary. She must have chuckled at the unexpected additions to her vocabulary, because Carla turned around and smiled down at her before saying, "There you are, sweetie. How was the sauna?"

"A little bit chilly, I think they need to turn the heat up in there a bit." Beca said dryly, though whether due to her normal, sarcastic manner or from having spent the last fifteen minutes baking alive she wasn't sure. Carla however was well used to her sarcastic humor by now and merely laughed as she walked over to the short brunette carrying another glass of water.

"Well, I'll tell the maintenance guys to look it over. You still look a bit undercooked." Carla said, conveniently waiting until just after Beca took a sip of water to show off her own dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Snorting, and almost choking on the water, Beca shot the other woman a dark look as she coughed a few times to clear her throat.

"I always knew you were the witch out of Hansel and Gretel, Carla. Well, I foiled your plan today." Beca said, shaking a finger at the older woman, who threw her head back and almost cackled with laughter. Beca had to fight hard not to let her own face break into a grin as she took another sip. After swallowing she paused, as though something had just occurred to her and then, with a significant glance at the short Filipina, she raised an admonitory finger and said, "Though I guess with the steam room and hot tub there's still a chance to broil me or stew me. But I've got my eye on you now."

"You caught onto my wicked plans after all, darn." Carla said, snapping her fingers as though she'd had all her hopes dashed. Beca couldn't help herself after that and started to laugh, the older woman joining in after a moment. When they'd both calmed down Beca finished off her water and Carla asked, "One more to take in with you, dear?"

"Ummm, sure." Beca said, arching her back in a stretch briefly as Carla went and got her another cup of water. Once properly equipped with water, Beca let the other woman open the door again, she was well aware of how touchy the older lady could get when Beca tried to do her job for her, and stepped into the steam room.

A roiling wave of steam, humidity and heat enveloped Beca as she stepped into the swirling clouds of water vapor. Where the sauna dry heat reminded her a bit of LA summers, the damp humidity of the steam room reminded her of her brief time spent in Georgia before she'd arrived in LA, during a brief and ill-conceived idea to get a college degree before making a name for herself in the music industry. Not wanting to dwell on the unhappy memories of her time at Barden University, though to be fair it hadn't all been misery just the end, Beca moved in and took a seat on one of the slick tiled benches.

Even the effort of walking five feet into the room and taking a seat had been enough, with the hundred-plus degree heat and about ninety-eight percent humidity, to cause sweat to erupt from every pore that the parched, dry air of the sauna had opened up. She supposed, as she was nearly instantly soaked in sweat, that the sauna/steam room combination did indeed seem to work. But she had never been a fan of being super sweaty. At least in the steam room she could blame a portion of the moisture covering her as steam and whatnot condensing on her skin which was many degrees cooler than the surrounding air.

After another fifteen or twenty minutes in the steam room, which was usually about as long as Beca could take, the short DJ stood up and, dripping sweat off nearly every inch of herself, stepped back out into the treatment room where the much cooler air felt wonderfully cooling. Carla spotted her immediately and moved over, eyeing the DJ as she walked across the room. Beca eyed the woman nervously as she stepped up and took Beca's glass, mainly because she didn't have another one to replace it with.

Falling into step alongside Carla after having retrieved her robe from the hook between the sauna and steam rooms, it didn't take Beca long to realize what she was planning. Stopping in her tracks Beca turned to glare at the older woman, "Oh no you don't. I told you no!"

"But Ms. Mitchell, Beca, it's really good for you. I promise this time, nothing will happen. There's no one here, you're the only customer in the whole spa right now…" Carla said, gesturing towards the pressure shower. Beca was beyond skeptical of the whole idea. She eyed the entire contraption warily as Carla stepped up to it.

It was basically a free standing shower encased on all sides in glass. There was a tiled, stone bench in the middle of the shower, which was about a foot deep from the surface of the floor. Almost directly above the bench was a showerhead unlike anything Beca has ever seen before or since. It was almost like a fire hose nozzle. And that's what it had felt like the one and only time Beca had tried it. There was a button nearby that, once Beca was seated inside and the door was securely closed, would cause water to come pouring from the nozzle above her at a ridiculous rate. The unfortunate accident had happened last time when Beca, after getting hit in the back by the cascading wave of water, had straightened abruptly, exposing her front to the downpour. Carla, it seemed, was remembering the incident as well judging by the woman's next comments.

"If you had only listened to me last time. I told you to be careful when you lean back. This time, just, you know, secure the girls before you lean back. Everything will be fine. And besides, if you just let the water fall onto your neck and shoulders, it's almost like a massage by itself…" The older woman was giving the hard sell, Beca knew. Probably because she felt bad about the last time, which granted had been weeks ago, but Beca had always seemed to be here when the place was, if not full, at least occupied by other guests as well as herself.

It was really hard to say no to Carla, though, when she was looking at you like your favorite grandmother just hoping to spend a little time with you. Beca felt her resolve cracking, breaking down against the implacable wall of will that was Carla Ocampo. Sighing, Beca took off her robe and handed it to the now smiling Filipina who knew she had won this particular fight. Pausing beside her as she held the door open, Beca pointed a finger at her and said, "If anything happens…"

She left the threat vague, mainly because she knew she couldn't really say anything that Carla would believe her capable of doing. So with one more stern look, Beca stepped down into the shower and gingerly took a seat on the bench. With more than a little bit of trepidation, Beca grabbed both of her breasts and, at a muffled question from outside which she assumed was asking if she was ready, she nodded.

Somewhat braced this time, and a little more prepared for the experience, the onslaught of water that started to fall on her wasn't quite as much of a shock. After a few moments adjustment to the temperature, it felt quite cold to her after having just stepped out of the steam room, Beca finally started to relax a little. She realized that she probably didn't need to keep squeezing her tits so hard, and relaxed her grip a little and started to ease around, letting the water splash onto her neck and shoulders a little more.

By the time the flow stopped, it only lasted for a couple of minutes, the deep basin in which the bench sat was nearly completely full of water, and Beca had come to a startling conclusion. This thing wasn't quite the devil contraption she'd originally thought it to be. After she'd adjusted to the temperature and the feeling of that much water pouring down on her, she had realized that it felt quite refreshing, cooling her down nicely from the dry heat of the sauna and the wet heat of the steam room. And while it would never compare to an actual massage, the pressure of the stream cascading down onto her neck and shoulders had been a bit like a crude massage and she was willing to admit that they felt a bit better now.

Wiping the water from her eyes, and wringing out her hair, Beca stood up and made sure that her top hadn't slipped before stepping out of the glass enclosed shower. Carla, she noted, had a smug smile on her face. Trying to look a bit grumpy, though she knew that she was probably failing at it, Beca just said, "Ok, it wasn't terrible… Hot tub now, then Donna can have her way with me."

Beca, having taken the small towel offered by Carla and drying her face off on it, missed the look that crossed the other woman's face. By the time the DJ had finished drying her face off Carla had recovered, and walked Beca over to the hot tub. Slipping carefully into the hot water, Beca couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips as she felt the warmth engulf her. As she settled on to one of the benches Carla said quietly, "I'll go get you another glass of water…"

Beca just murmured her ascent to that plan, too busy letting the warm water start the process of relaxation that was just what the doctor had ordered. Well, technically she had ordered it, but that had been a while. Now it was just what Beca had ordered to keep herself from killing her bosses or the snot-nosed little brats she sometimes had to deal with in her studio. She definitely need to get one of these for her place. There was a spot on the deck, Beca realized as she relaxed even deeper into the water, that would be perfect for it. It was shaded on three sides from her neighbors, not that they could really see onto her deck without binoculars anyway, and had a great view down across the beach to the ocean.

When Carla came back with the water, Beca barely noticed, so immersed in the relaxing feeling of the hot water she was. The short DJ wasn't sure how long she'd even been sitting before something finally did happen that drew her attention from the jet in the hot tub that was hitting just the right spot on her back. Someone was knocking at the door to the treatment room and she heard a voice calling out. But not the voice of Donna…

"Hello, Ms. Mitchell? It's Ricardo, can I come in?" The voice called, and Beca easily could have recognized the silky, smooth tones of Ricardo Vallencia without his having to identify himself. Opening her eyes, which had drifted closed at some point, Beca took a sip of water quickly, then checked to make sure her suit was still decently covering herself. Determining that everything was fine, she put her drink back down by the edge of the tub before returning the call.

"Please, Mr. Vallencia, this is your spa, you don't need my permission to do anything, really…" Beca called out. Moving from the seat she'd chosen, one that had a nice view off the second floor balcony and down onto Venice Beach, Beca swapped sides. With her back to the outside she saw the door open up and the sturdy frame of Ricardo enter the room. A well-built man in his late forties, Ricardo's Italian heritage was blatantly obvious in his olive-skinned complexion, dark hard and dark brown eyes. As was also traditional with Italians, Ricardo's face could be a wonder to view, depending on his mood. There was a time, about three months after she'd started coming to Serenity Spa that Beca had seen Ricardo yelling at one of his staff, she wasn't sure what the young man had done, but if Beca hadn't seen the other side of his personality, she'd have turned on her heel and fled the establishment right then and there. He could make Gordon Ramsey seem pleasant and mild-mannered without even trying hard.

"Of course not, Ms. Mitchell. I wouldn't dare to intrude if you didn't want me here." He said, his voice soothing as he stepped into the room. Dressed fairly casually considering the clientele his spa normally saw, Ricardo's shirt was a light-weight off-white cotton blend, opened at the top to blow gently in the air as he moved. His beige silk slacks covered his lower half, descending down to the moccasin style loafers he tended to wear around the spa. As he moved towards the hot tub in which Beca sat he gestured towards himself, tapping his chest, as he asked, "How many times? How many times, eh, have I told you to call me Ricardo, Ms. Mitchell?"

"About as many times as I've told you to call me Beca, I think… Ms. Mitchell had always been my mother, before she changed her name at any rate, but either way it definitely isn't me, thank you very much." Beca said with a laugh. Nearly every time they ran into each other they had this same conversation. And it always ended up the same way. Beca reclined back into the hot water as Ricardo took a seat on one of the lounge chairs near the hot tub.

"Ah, bellissima, how you torment me so. If only my wife knew…" He bemoaned, raising his hands in the air as though seeking guidance from a higher being. Beca just started laughing even harder. His gaze came down to frown at her mirth-filled face.

"You're wife does know, you dirty old man. And she loves me, remember? Told me I was the daughter she always wanted. In fact, I think she tried to slip some adoption paperwork into the last contract I filled out with you guys…" Beca finally said after her laughter had subsided. From the guilty look on Ricardo's face, it might not have been his wife, Tess, who had slipped in the papers.

Taking a deep, soothing breath Beca stretched in the hot water for a moment, before something caught her attention. Ricardo's face had moved from jokingly abashed to concerned. Immediately she turned towards the deck, expecting to see no less than a dozen paparazzi storming the second floor balcony. When all she saw was the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean she turned back around to face Ricardo, confusion evident on her face.

"Ah, bellissima, I have some news for you. It is both good, and bad…" Ricardo started out, leaning forward on the lounger, his hands held out like scales dipping up and down as though weighing the situation. Before he could go on, Beca interrupted.

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait. You're being serious? Like for real bad news? Damnit Ricardo, you know I come here because there's never bad news. This is Serenity, nothing bad is supposed to happen here…" Beca said, her voice more of a whine than anything else. Sitting up straight in the water, even though it almost exposed parts of her she wasn't normally into flashing about in public, Beca gestured for him to continue.

"I said good news too, Beca. Where shall we start? Well, might as well start with the bad. Donna is not here." Ricardo asked, holding up his hands to stop Beca from answering. Shrugging his shoulders he went on, "Before you get worried, I tell you do not. She still works here, I could never let her go, but she had to leave just before you showed up for a family emergency. I wish we had had time to call you, but you were walking in the door right at the time she was no doubt driving out of the parking lot."

"Ugghhh! Are you kidding me? No, Ricardo, no… I need this massage. This week has been hell. Why did you guys… Why didn't Cindy or Carla say something earlier?" Beca said, her head falling back to rest on the edge of the hot tub. All the relaxing she'd done, even the bit from that infernal pressure shower, had been undone in an instant. She felt like crying, though she'd never do that in public, that was for sure…

"I am not kidding, bellissima, though I wish that I were." Ricardo said, shaking his head sadly. Taking a deep breath he went on, his voice as calm and soothing as he could make it, "And they didn't say anything because I wanted to be the one to tell you. It is my job, as owner, to break the news to you. But do not worry. I have no intention of canceling your appointment."

Beca's head rose so quickly that she felt her neck crick slightly and winced in pain. Moving one hand to her neck to massage the sudden sharp pain she eyed Ricardo warily. He knew, he damned well knew how she had already gone through everyone on his staff before finding Donna. She trusted Donna, she knew Donna. She wasn't going to let someone else put their hands on her… Opening her mouth, she said so, though in politer terms, "Ricardo, no. I appreciate it, I do. But… Well, I like Donna. She knows where all the kinks are, my usual trouble spots. I wouldn't want anyone else to, I mean, I wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone else."

Ricardo chuckled, a twinkle in his eye as he looked down at Beca. He apparently knew her too well because his next words were, "Don't worry, Beca. I know how you feel about, well… This girl, she is new. You haven't yet had a chance to tell me no about her. And believe me, after tonight, after tonight Donna may have more time in her schedule. This girl, she has magic hands, bellissima. I promise she is the best I have ever known."

"I don't know, Ricardo…" Beca said, her skepticism evident in her tone and on her face. She wasn't a fan of people. It tended to complicate things, but it's how she was. She usually preferred people separated from her by a sheet of soundproof glass, if she had the option. However, in all the time that she'd been coming here, Ricardo had never lead her astray. And she had given the others at least one chance, well with a few exceptions. Some people deserved an immediate no. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out in a long, loud sigh, Beca nodded once before saying, "Ok… I'm not happy about this, but ok. If you say she's the best, I can at least give her a shot… Tell me about her."

Ricardo clapped his hands in delight, clasping them together and raising them up in a triumphant cheer. When he brought them back down he was smiling at her again, delight on his face, as he said, "You will see. I promise, she's the best. She just started a month ago, usually works mornings, but she agreed to stay when Donna had to leave. Her name is Chloe…"

Beca didn't just jerk upright in her seat this time. This time she stood straight up in the hot tub in shock and horror. Water cascaded down her body, flowing over her smooth, pale skin to splash back into the tub. Beca didn't even notice. The look on her face, as well as her abrupt movements stopped Ricardo's flow of words, and Beca gaped, her mouth opening and closing without sound three times before she finally remembered how to speak, well sort of.

"I… I don't…" Confusion stole over Ricardo's face as Beca stopped again, closing her mouth to take a deep breath. Opening her eyes she looked pleadingly at the man, "I'm not a fan of… Of the name Chloe. I, well, I knew someone, before. Before I came to LA. Her name was Chloe and she, well, she almost destroyed me. Her and the… Her friends. I… I'll just go, I'll reschedule for tomorrow with Donna."

"Awww, bellissima, no, no. Please. This girl, she is not the Chloe you knew. I promise, there is no way she is this girl who broke your heart. I swear, she is the best, Beca." Ricardo said, his eyes never wavering from Beca's as he pleaded his case. Wringing his hands in front of him he held them out, beseeching her trust, as he said, "I swear, she will not disappoint. In fact, I guarantee. Tonight is free, no charge. If you are not happy, tomorrow you can see Donna, again no charge."

Beca was shocked. Shocked by two things. First off, she never expected such generosity from Ricardo. Granted he was the biggest sweetheart she had ever met, but he still had a business to run, and her appointments were not cheap. But she made good money, so it never bothered her. The second thing that shocked her, not that the initial shock of the name had worn off, was the cold air that now hit her as she realized that she was standing up. Sitting back down hastily she said, "No, Ricardo. I couldn't take your… Please, I will, I will try. I will go ahead with the appointment with Ch… With the girl with the magic hands. But don't bother Donna tomorrow. And I insist on paying for my own time."

But Ricardo wouldn't hear a word of it. He insisted that she not pay for her services that night. She managed to talk him into giving whatever fee he would have given to her for the next day's service to Donna, to make up for any lost wages and tips for this evening, but he wouldn't hear a word about her current visit. In the end she acquiesced when she realized how late it was getting. She still had a gig to play later that night. Her label had booked her to play the grand opening at some new club downtown, so in the end she let him win.

"Good!" He said once Beca stopped arguing. Standing up he smiled down at her and clasped his hands together again before saying, "I will go get Carla, she will take you down to the room. You will be happy, I promise."

Beca sincerely doubted it, but she was reluctantly willing to try. The big man had barely stepped out of the room before Carla came back in. Figuring she must have been waiting right outside the door, Beca stood up and climbed from the hot tub. Taking one of the towels Carla offered, she quickly patted herself dry before slipping her robe back on. Turning, she walked towards the door that lead down to the private rooms, Carla already waiting with the door open.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything, Ms. Mitchell. He made me swear I wouldn't. He wanted to tell you himself." She apologized as soon as they had stepped into the hall. Beca smiled as she realized how much it must have been eating at the older woman to have kept that from her the whole time. Well, she wasn't mad at Carla. Honestly she wasn't really made at anyone. Accidents happen, she knew that as well as anyone.

"Don't worry about it, Carla. He's your boss, I understand." Beca said, waving it off. Walking down the cool, marble hallway, Beca's mind was already starting to flit out of the spa and on to the night she still had left. She went on just after 10 PM and would play until 2. Her set list was already nailed down and her gear would be setup. She was actually looking forward to the event, it had been a few months since DJ Ti.B had played a club, and Beca was missing the feeling of being behind a set of turntables.

The walk to the room was short, they almost always put Beca in one of the larger, more opulent rooms. It didn't bother her, one way or the other, but she appreciated the thought on their part. Looking around she noticed the lighting was low, but that this girl with "magic hands" wasn't in the room yet. Ricardo might be giving her a warning or talking to or something. Beca shrugged and turned as Carla started talking, "You know the drill, I expect. If you want to take off the bikini you can, it's recommended, robes hang up over there."

Beca did indeed know the drill, and knew that no suit did in fact make for a much more comfortable time. Laying around with a wet suit drying on you wasn't all that fun. She looked to where Carla had pointed, knowing that there were hooks for her robe there, then turned back to the older woman and smiled before saying, "I do know the drill, thank you, Carla. It's always a pleasure to see you. Will you still be here when I leave?"

"Maybe briefly, but you know you're welcome to sit in the hot tub as long as you want afterwards. Ricardo won't kick you out even if it meant he was here all night." Carla said, moving back to the door. Beca laughed lightly because she knew it was true. About a month or so earlier the pair had actually done just that, stayed up until the dawn lit the sky outside talking about seemingly everything there was to talk about. It had been one of the best nights Beca could remember in a long time.

"I know, thanks Carla. You've been wonderful tonight, as always. Even though you made try that infernal contraption." Beca said, smiling at the older woman so that she would know Beca was joking. Carla just laughed. And that sight alone made the whole ordeal worth it.

"Enjoy your massage, sweetie. I'll see you when you're done." Carla said before shutting the door. Beca sighed, knowing she didn't have long before Ch… the woman with magic hands came in. Chloe wasn't that uncommon of a name. Rationally Beca knew that. Hell, you could throw a rock in LA and hit half a dozen, she was sure. But the name still… hurt. Shaking off bad memories, Beca walked over to the stand and took off her robe before hesitating.

Deciding that she might as well give … this girl a chance, she reached behind herself and untied the strap for the top of her bikini and slid it over her head. Sliding the bottoms down, she took both and hung them on the rack beside the robe. Moving towards the table she climbed up, pulling the sheet aside and lay face down, pulling the sheet up to cover her back and start to breathe deeply, trying to draw the calming vibes of the room inside her.

A couple of minutes passed before a soft rap could be heard on the door. Before she could answer, she heard it open and soft footsteps entered the room. She felt herself tense up under the sheet, just waiting for the most unlikely of all possible scenarios.

A familiar voice to call out her name.

Instead she heard only soft, instrumental music start to play and soft footsteps making their way around the room. With her face pressed into the round, donut like cushion at the head of the massage table, to say that Beca's vision was limited was the granddaddy of all understatements. Even so, she occasionally saw fleeting glimpses of movement as the girl went about setting things up. The dim lights brightened just barely as she turned a couple of the lights up, and the occasional flash of a foot entered into her field of view. All in all, it was exactly like a massage with Donna, minus the brief bit of chatting the two would usually engage in before things got started.

But seeing as Beca didn't know this woman, and wasn't sure if she really wanted to get to know someone who would only be a constant remind of someone she'd flown something like two thousand miles to get away from, Beca was ok with the not talking. And if she was truthful with herself it wasn't just her that had been the reason for the trip, but her most of all.

The sharp, almost overpowering smell of eucalyptus burst through the haze of bad memories that Beca had been surrounded by and she opened her eyes suddenly. Below her, as expected, were two slim, slender hands rubbing back and forth. The strong eucalyptus smell was coming from them. That meant they were about to begin. After a few seconds, the hands withdrew and Beca took in a breath in preparation, which all rushed out as she felt a soft touch on her covered shoulder followed by a soft, female voice.

"Ms. Mitchell, are you ready to begin?" The voice asked politely. Beca barely registered the question, however, as she realized that the voice she'd been waiting to hear was not the one she had feared. Final confirmation. Beca finally felt herself start to relax as she nodded her head.


	2. An Eventful Meeting

**A/N:** Well, I certainly didn't think I'd be back so quickly with this update. But, what can I say, I was inspired to write this chapter. Now, please, try not to hurt yourselves fainting at seeing an update so soon, I would hate to be responsible for that. Before anyone asks I have gotten actually quite a lot of writing done since I put out the first chapter of this, including new stuff for the latest chapters of the Nocturnal series, Devil of Barden (or Blind Beca as one of you readers has called it, you know who you are), and also on a certain prologue for a joint fic with Zap that we've been tossing around for quite a while now. Now it's entirely possible that the third chapter of this will become an all-consuming desire for me to have finished immediately, you never know. All I can say is that I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Especially since Zap told me it would have been cruel to delay it for a day or two. Anyway, please drop me a review to let me know what you think, and I sincerely hope you like it. And now, on with the show!

* * *

 **An Eventful Meeting**

Several very audible pops resonated in Chloe's ears as the redhead arched upwards, her spine curving as she stretched sore muscles. Of all the various jobs she'd had since leaving college, she had to admit that being a massage therapist was possibly one of the most strenuous on her muscles. And whenever she let herself dwell on it, she wondered who massaged the masseuse. Of course, usually that ended up being Aubrey. Though with how busy her friend had been over the last month setting up the new retreat here in LA, Chloe hadn't seen much of her.

But she'd promised Chloe that tonight she'd be home at a decent time. The pair had wanted to meet up with Stacie and maybe do some drinking and dancing. Chloe was actually quite looking forward to it, she realized, as she cleaned up the room. Her last guest had left, and left her quite a nice tip too, about fifteen minutes earlier and the redhead almost had things back in order. She didn't know how everything got so out of whack during a simple deep-tissue massage, but it had.

Rolling her head side to side caused a couple additional pops as her neck cracked, and she let out a quiet groan of relief. Maybe, since she had some time she'd go take a quick dip in the hot tub out in the hydrotherapy area. Mr. Vallencia didn't mind, in fact he encouraged all of his employees to take advantage of the facilities as long as there were no guests. And considering how late it was, Chloe didn't expect there to be any other guests in the building. Her last appointment had been booked at the end of the day slot, so short of massages going long, Chloe didn't think there'd be anyone around but employees.

Considerably cheered up by that though, she placed the last few things in their proper places and gave the room a once over. It wasn't completely cleaned up, that would be the cleaning crew's job after she left, but they weren't responsible for the oils and other things that the masseuses used, which was why Chloe had had to take care of them. Still, her job was done now and a quick glance at the clock on the wall told her that she had time for about a 20 minute dip in the hot tub before she'd need to get heading home.

With a bright smile on her face and a joyful bounce to her step, she exited the room and started to make her way to the employee lounge to text Bree. Walking through she saw Carla, one of the stewards who was responsible for greeting guests and taking them through the hydrotherapy treatments, sitting in one of the comfy chairs watching tv. The older Filipina lady had always been really nice to Chloe so the fact that her smile grew even happier was completely genuine.

"Carla, I didn't know you were still her. How are you doing tonight?" Chloe asked, letting the door close behind as she walked into the room. The older lady look up and returned a friendly smile to match the one Chloe was sporting. Heading towards the lockers along the side, Chloe looked back over her shoulder at the other lady when she spoke.

"Oh it's you, Chloe. You are always a ray of sunshine, do you know that? And I'm doing perfectly well, thank you. Just catching a bit of a breather, you know?" Carla said, gesturing towards the cup of what Chloe assumed to be flavored water sitting on the table beside her. Chloe nodded her understanding before turning to her locker and punching in the code to open it. Her phone sat front and center, the light blinking on top telling her she had notifications waiting for her.

"You know, Carla, I do my very best, but with folks like you around, it isn't much of a chore." Chloe said, turning back to the other woman with a smile as she started to make her way towards the seats. She was actually a little surprised that Carla was still here, but the reason for it dawned on her quick enough. She had to stick around as long as there were guests either coming or still getting treatments, to greet them as they left. A shadow crossed her features as she realized that that meant that there was someone still in the building, which meant she'd probably have to wait for her dip in the tub. Unlocking her phone, she spoke as she looked over the various Facebook notifications she'd gotten in the last two hours, and saw that Aubrey had also sent her a text. Wondering if she might have time to take a dip after all, Bree might be running late herself, Chloe said, "I certainly understand the need to take a little break. In fact, I'd been thinking about maybe taking a dip in the hot tub. Do you know when the last guest is leaving?"

Carla's face drooped a bit in a frown as she looked up at Chloe sadly. Never a good sign as far as the redhead was concerned. Regret laced the other woman's voice as she said, "Oh Chloe, I don't know if that's going to be possible. We have a late appointment tonight, she'll probably be getting here in about fifteen minutes. You know Mr. Vallencia's rules…"

"Damn." Chloe said, knowing exactly what the older woman was referring too. Her curiosity was piqued though, as they didn't normally schedule appointments this late. Then again, this was the first time Chloe had worked a Friday since she'd started about a month ago, so maybe it was normal for Fridays. But she had looked over the available appointments many times, and never remembered seeing any options to book things so late for other Fridays. Dropping into a chair beside Carla, Chloe shot a questioning look to the other woman as she asked, "There's still one more guest coming in for treatment? I thought the last appointment time was 6…"

"Oh yeah, that's right, you've never worked on Fridays, have you? This is a special one. She's a favorite of Mr. Vallencia's, and because of her work schedule she usually has to come in later. So he lets her make special late appointments. He usually has it on the calendar for 6, but she doesn't normally come in until 7 at the earliest." Carla said, surprise appearing first on her face before she realized that Chloe just wasn't aware of these long standing appointments.

Chloe was about to respond, to ask who the customer was and why she got such special treatment, when the door burst open and one of the other masseuses, Donna unless Chloe was mistaken, dashed into the room clutching her phone to her ear. Chloe watched as the woman hurried to her locker and overheard Donna saying, "But she's ok, right? I can't believe your brother let her do that. I'm heading to the hospital now. Mr. Vallencia said I could take off early, he'd get someone to take Beca's appointment tonight. I should be there in, like, fifteen minutes. Give her a kiss for me, ok?"

Processing all the information took Chloe a few seconds. And by the time she did Donna had already rushed out of the room. Chloe wasn't even sure if the other girl had noticed the two of them sitting there. Piecing things together Chloe guessed that Donna's daughter, a sweet little girl the couple times Chloe had met her, had gotten hurt somehow. Probably thanks to her brother-in-law, who from stories she'd heard was a bit of a reckless idiot at times. But it didn't seem too serious.

Then, as her brain processed the rest of what had been said, Chloe realized that Donna must have been whoever this mysterious "special" customer was coming to see. Beca, she'd heard the other woman say.

Beca…

A name that Chloe hadn't heard in years. A person whom the redhead thought about more frequently than she cared to admit. Nah, it couldn't be the same Beca, not her Beca. Then again Beca had never really been hers, had she? And if what Stacie had told them was true, the brunette didn't ever want to be hers. That bit of information had hurt Chloe more than she could have realized. She hadn't spoken to Aubrey for a week after Stacie had told them that Beca was living in LA and that the two were friends. And after she'd railed at both of them about how Beca felt regarding the Bellas, a situation for which Aubrey was, while not entirely responsible for, very nearly entirely responsible for.

Still, there's no way it could be the same Beca. There was something like twenty million people living in the LA area. There was no way that the Beca that Donna was supposed to see tonight was the one she'd known all those years ago in Atlanta. Chloe dismissed the thought, turning to see Carla looking at the door that had just closed on the retreating masseuse, and said, "I'm guessing that's what you meant? Wonder who's going to have to cover…?"

Before Chloe could even finish the thought the door to the lounge opened up and Mr. Vallencia walked in looking hopeful. Chloe shut her eyes briefly as she saw his gaze fall on her and his face light up. Maybe she wouldn't be making it home on time tonight after all…

"Ah! Chloe, good, good! I'm so glad you haven't left yet. I have a huge favor I need to ask you…" Mr. Vallencia started, his hands clasped together as though he were begging her for alms. He had always seemed to have a sweet spot for her since she'd started, so she probably could say no if she explained that she had plans for the evening. But the look on his face, so hopeful and desperate at the same time, was making that decision tough for Chloe.

"I was just about to head out the door, Mr. Vallencia. I have some plans tonight with my roommate, we're going…" Chloe trailed off as the man's face fell. His whole frame seemed to droop with disappointment, and Chloe felt terrible. She always hated having to say no, to anything. It's why, she had realized years ago, she had let Aubrey walk all over her during the blond's final year at Barden. Chloe knew how important it was to Bree, and she couldn't say no to her best friend. Feeling that familiar stab of guilt, Chloe swallowed, sighed, and then said, "What's the favor? I might be able to be late…"

"Oh, perfecto, perfecto! Chloe you are the best, you know this? I've told you this before, right? You have the magic hands, I tell everyone who asks." Mr. Vallencia's demeanor had flipped a complete one eighty when Chloe had hinted she might be available. His hands were gesturing so quickly that Chloe thought they'd fly off soon. He had told her that before, and like before it made her blush. He'd asked here where she'd learned the technique, but she hadn't been able to explain properly the hours and hours spent giving massages and backrubs for Bellas after grueling training sessions and how it just kind of came naturally to her.

"I haven't agreed to anything yet, Mr. Vallencia." Chloe said, reminding him that she was only considering. She knew what the request was going to be, but didn't want it to seem like they'd been eavesdropping, so she simply put on her signature smile and asked, "What was the favor you needed?"

"Oh yes, yes. There is a customer, my very favorite. She had an appointment tonight with Donna, but Donna's daughter was hurt today, nothing serious don't worry, and she had to leave. I need someone to take the appointment…" The big man said, his face having fallen a little after having been put in his place. But he still looked hopeful, and Chloe was struggling mightily to find a reason to say no. Quickly thumbing her phone unlocked she checked the text conversation with Bree, hoping it would say that the blond was heading home and ready to party. Instead it said just the opposite. There was a last minute problem that had come up at the lodge, and she'd end up being an hour and a half late. Crap.

"Well, it seems I might have a little time in my schedule after all." Chloe said, locking her phone again and giving it a little wave. Sighing she gave a small, undignified squeak when the big man rushed up to her and gave her a hug so hearty that it lifted her off her feet and left her dangling as he gripped her tightly. When he finally put her down he swooped down and placed a kiss on each cheek.

"Oh, Chloe, you are my perfetto angelo. My perfect angel. I knew I could count on you." He said as he stepped back. Gesturing for her to follow him to the office, no doubt for details about the customer, the mysterious Beca, he led the way inside before taking a seat behind his desk. Gesturing for Chloe to sit as well he waited until she had before going on, "So this customer… She is like a daughter to me, ok? She is… She is very picky when it comes to things like this. But I know you will do a great job, you are the best we have."

"Stop trying to butter me up, you've already won the fight." Chloe said teasingly to the man, who just chuckled in response. In all fairness, Chloe had known the moment he'd walked in that he would be asking her to do this, and she was quite curious about this Beca. Even though her brain told her that it could be her Beca, her heart had started beating faster the moment she'd heard the name. Of course, the thought of what she would do if it was her Beca suddenly popped into her mind as she remembered the lecture she and Aubrey had gotten from Stacie. Apparently Beca was still very much pissed off at all of them, except Stacie it seemed. Though the former Bella had explained that if Beca hadn't had been in a car accident and confined to a hospital bed, they might never had had the opportunity to get past, well, the past.

"It's not buttering you up. I speak only the truth, little Chloe. So, this customer, she is somewhat famous, you see, and likes her privacy. So I let her make these late appointments when no one is around to bother her." Mr. Vallencia said with a very fond look on his face. Of course, just saying that was enough to ratchet Chloe's curiosity up several more notches. After a moment's pause, where Mr. Vallencia seemed to be choosing his words very carefully, he went on, "Her name is Beca Mitchell, and she works in the music industry. I just know that she will be very happy with you."

Chloe was so shocked shouldn't even know how to react. The words Beca Mitchell had dropped through Chloe like a ten ton anvil. While she may have been imagining that the "Beca" to whom Donna was referring was the Beca she'd known back in Atlanta, never in a million years would she have actually expected it to happen. It was, like, a one in twenty million chance, or something. Chloe wasn't sure quite how the statistics worked out, she'd have to talk to Aubrey, or maybe Stacie cuz that bitch was smart, either way, the chances were slim. And she'd known that.

It became apparent to her that that anvil must have dropped her jaw open too on top of setting her insides into a complete state of chaos, because Mr. Vallencia was looking at her with obvious concern on his face now. Shutting her mouth she nodded and, searching for words to say she tried to stick to the basics. Swallowing in hopes that it would calm her roiling insides she asked, "So, uh, this customer… Ms. Mitchell, what's she coming in for? What sort of treatment?"

"Are you…?" Mr. Vallencia started to ask, but Chloe was nodding before he even finished asking if she was alright. Still eyeing her somewhat disbelievingly, he turned towards his computer monitor and after a few clicks to pull up the schedule he nodded. Turning back to her he said, "Well, as I said, she comes in frequently, once a week usually. She's scheduled for a deep-tissue massage today, 50 minutes. Knowing her she's actually already here and starting the hydrotherapy, though she usually just uses the sauna, steam room and hot tub. But she should be ready in about a half an hour or so. Are you sure you're fine with this?"

Chloe had listened half-heartedly while Mr. Vallencia had spoken. She got the relevant details easily enough. 50-minute deep tissue, should be ready in half an hour or so. She knew that Carla would come get her when Beca was ready. Right now Chloe needed some advice. She simply nodded to the man and stood up, saying she was going to get ready.

Once out in the now empty employee lounge, Chloe sagged against the wall and had a bit of a panic attack. But only a small one. From everything that Stacie had said, Beca would probably freak out if she knew that Chloe was in the same room as her, let alone giving her a massage. Whipping her phone out of her pocket she paused as her thumb was hovering over the icon to call Aubrey. While the blond may have been her best friend and closest confidant in the world, her opinions of Beca Mitchell were nearly as skewed as Chloe's own.

Back out she scrolled down a few contacts to Stacie's number and hit the call button. Lifting the phone to her ear she started pacing back and forth as it rang. As she waited for it to connect through to Stacie, she threw a false smile and wave to Mr. Vallencia as he exited his office and headed out into the spa, no doubt to go tell Beca about the change in schedule. If she was such a special guest, she probably got that sort of treatment from Mr. Vallencia. Turning her attention back to the ringing in her ear she almost thought it was going to go to voicemail before she finally heard it pick up and background noise came bursting through the speaker.

"Hello? Stace?" Chloe called out loudly, trying to make herself heard over what Chloe could tell was hospital sounds. She hadn't realized that the buxom brunette was at work today. It seemed that maybe all three of them had gotten a bit busy today and she wondered if they were still going to go out tonight.

"Yeah, get him prepped for OR3 and Doctor Miller will be ready soon." Chloe heard Stacie's voice issue instructions to someone nearby. The redhead expected that Stacie had just answered the phone so it didn't go to voicemail while she finished up whatever she was doing. For a moment the intense pride she felt for her fellow Bella broke through the panic she was feeling as she thought of how well Stacie was doing over at UCLA Med School and how the brunette was already starting to spend time in hospitals. The background noise quieted down a bit and Chloe guessed that Stacie had stepped out of wherever she'd been before. Her suspicions were proved true when she heard the other girl speaking to her, "Hey Chlo. Sorry about that. Was just finishing up on something in the ER…"

"Oh god. I hope everything's ok. I don't wanna take you away from saving lives." Chloe said, suddenly panicking for an entirely new reason. She hadn't even thought about Stacie taking time to answer her phone could mean people dying, or something.

"Jesus, Chloe. You always go to the worst place, don't you? No, it's nothing that serious. Just some accident. Kid got hurt and needed surgery. I was telling nurses to do things that they already knew to do." Stacie said, chuckling through the phone with a bit of deprecating humor. It worked, though, as Chloe laughed back, her panic settling back onto her original cause as Stacie started speaking again, "I'm only an intern, remember? Most of the people here still know more about all this than I do. If it was serious, I wouldn't have answered the phone."

"Well, thank goodness for that. I'd hate to be in the hospital and die because my doctor took a phone call from their bestie." Chloe said, stopping her pacing to take a seat on one of the couches. Slumping back into the squishy cushions, she let out all of her breath in one gusty sigh.

"Uh oh. I know that sigh…" Stacie said, and Chloe could almost see the brunette raising her eyebrow at her, just like she had for all those years they'd been living together in the Bellas' House at Barden. There were times that Chloe wished she were still there, helping Emily keep their little family together. But she had made her decision and graduated, now she had to be an adult. And Stacie obviously expected her to play the part too as she asked, "So, what's got you so stressed out today, Chlo? You canceling the girl s' night out plans?"

"What? No. I mean, I don't know. You sound like you're busy, and Aubrey had to work late, and I'm having to work late, so maybe…" Chloe said, trailing off at the end as she thought about why she was working late. Chloe knew that her thoughts were over the place, but the only idea she'd had about what to do to collect them might be costing people their lives. Ok, she knew that wasn't true, but drama had kind of been her forte for the last several years so…

"Oh, quiet you. I knew Bree was working late, she called me earlier, and since I wanted to log a few more hours at the hospital, I picked up a short shift. But I should be done here in about an hour." Stacie said, speaking firmly. The brunette doctor-to-be was well-aware of how Chloe could get at times. She'd seen it often enough in her four years at Barden with the redhead. She also knew that usually just a calm, firm hand was enough to settle the fiery redhead back down. Putting on her best co-captain's voice she said, "What's bugging you, Chlo? You're worked up over something, spit it out."

"It's Beca!" The words left Chloe's mouth in such a rush that the ginger didn't even have time to think about them. Of course, it was why she called, so like with a Band-Aid maybe it was better to just rip it off and get right into the problem. Before she lost her nerve Chloe went on, "I mean, I wasn't supposed to be here. She usually sees Donna, I guess. But Donna had to leave. And now I have to see her. And not just see her, but _see_ her, you know? Like, I'm gonna have my hands all over her. But you said she hates us. Hates me. What if she finds out? She'll flip out. And I'm still new. Mr. Vallencia might fire me. And…"

"Jesus, Chloe. Calm down, wow." Stacie said, finally having to scream to get through Chloe's rambling rant. As she paused to take a breath her brain caught up with her ears and realized that Stacie had been trying to jump in at several points during her rant, but she'd just blown right past her former co-captain. When Stacie finally heard her stop and take a breath, the brunette went on in a more normal tone, "Ok, so lemme see if I got this right… Beca is coming into your spa for a massage, yeah? She was supposed to see some other girl, but that girl had to leave, and so your boss asked you to see her?"

"Yeah, that's about the gist of it. And she's gonna freak out, Stace… You said it yourself, we betrayed her. _I betrayed her._ " Chloe felt the stinging pain in her eyes and at the back of her throat that told her she was moments from crying. And that was REALLY not something she needed to be doing just minutes before seeing Beca for the first time in six years. She started to take in gulping breaths, anything to calm herself down.

Whatever Stacie said at first, Chloe never really heard. All that mattered was that her voice was soft and soothing and it helped her get control. When her breathing was finally back to normal, Stacie started actually talking to her, "Ok, well, you have two options really, Chlo. The first one, don't let her see you. Don't let her know it's you. I know you're a good enough actress to make her unable to recognize your voice…"

The idea had a lot of appeal to Chloe. She wasn't gonna lie, avoiding issues wasn't usually her go to tactic. But she also wasn't sure if she was ready to confront this problem head on quite yet. Thinking about what all she'd need to do to keep Beca from seeing her or knowing it was her, she asked, "What's option two?"

"Let her see you, get pissed, then have angry sex on the massage table." Stacie said with such a flat tone that Chloe's mouth literally dropped wide open. For a second.

"Stacie! Oh my god! I'm not gonna do that! Jesus, Stace, I don't even know if she likes girls!" Chloe had to admit, option two was tempting to dream about. In reality, no damn way. But, as she thought about it more, she started laughing at the idea. Which, she suspected had been Stacie's purpose in suggesting it…

Actually, she wasn't certain of that. Stacie, for all her brains, was still a sex fiend and might indeed try solving "The Beca Problem" as Chloe was starting to think of this situation as with her exceptional bedroom skills. Of course, that lead her to a thought that might have been how she initially settled her own Beca problem when the two had run into each other the first time. But Chloe didn't dwell on that.

"Ok, well, option two isn't an option. I don't need to give Mr. Vallencia two reasons to fire me. Beca's word might be enough, but trying to have sex with her at work would definitely be another." Chloe said, glancing at her watch and realizing that the brunette was probably just about done with her hydro time. Sighing once more she decided she better get off the phone with Stacie. Walking back towards her locker she said, "So that leaves option one, really. Hopefully there won't be much talking going on. Most people are pretty quiet during massages. I don't see Beca being a real talker… Well, I should get going, she'll probably be ready soon. I'll see you two later and tell you how it went."

Stacie offered up a couple more words of support, and one lewd suggestion about what to do if Beca figured out it was her, before Chloe hung up. But at least when she hung up she was laughing. That was better than her earlier state. She walked over to the bathroom attached to the lounge and took a peak at her reflection in the mirror. Thankfully she hadn't actually cried, so her eyes weren't puffy, her cheeks weren't tear-stained. She looked like Chloe. Glaring at her reflection she said in a firm voice, "You've got this, Beale. You can do this. And, when you're done, maybe we'll have a little chat with Stacie about why she thinks sex with Beca might make her get over what happened six years ago."

As she was finishing up her little pep talk she heard the door to the lounge open up followed by Carla calling her name. Stepping out of the bathroom she smiled at the older woman who was beaming at her. Carla told her that Beca was down in room 12, which didn't surprise Chloe because it was one of the nicer rooms in the whole facility. She nodded and, taking a deep breath, stepped past Carla and started heading down to where doom might possibly be waiting for her.

Just outside the room she paused again, drawing in a deep, calming breath before knocking softly on the door. Without waiting for an answer she quietly opened the door. One of the first things that she'd been taught when she'd started was that this was a place of serenity. I mean, that word was literally in the name of the spa. So anytime you were around guests you were cool, you were calm, you were collected, and most importantly, you were serene.

So Chloe walked in quietly, looking down at the floor, and acted as serene as she could, turning to softly shut the door. Taking another soft breath, she turned around and saw very, very familiar chocolate colored locks sweeping down over one exposed shoulder. Chloe's instantly jumped to the other shoulder, the right one where she saw the well-remembered flower tattoo trailing off underneath the sheet covering the Beca's body. A body that had haunted Chloe's dreams for six years.

But she was calm. She was serene. She was totes not freaking about being in the same room as Beca again. It was cool.

Summoning up the most titanic effort of will she'd ever needed in her life, Chloe got her feet moving. Once they did, the now familiar routine came as if they were on autopilot. It was as though her lower brain, her subconscious, had taken over and was now starting to perform the tasks which had, over the last month or so, become a comfortably familiar routine. Which was good, because her upper brain was still freaking out a little and the normalcy with which she went about turning on the music and preparing the lighting and eucalyptus rub began, finally to penetrate to the upper reaches.

By the time she had all the prep work finished up, she was back in control. She was cool. She was calm. She was serene. And she was reaching out, she watched as her hand descended to rest lightly on Beca's shoulder. She felt Beca twitch slightly when her hand made contact, and she smiled a little thinking how the short brunette must still not be a huge fan of touching. She also heard the rush of air as the breath left Beca in a rush.

The sight of the other girl's shoulders told Chloe that Beca was nervous. And she wondered if it was for the same reason. Or, well, almost the same reason. Beca, she expected, would probably be trying to figure out if she had to yell and scream at someone today. That reminder, if she'd even needed one, was what made it so that, when Chloe finally spoke, she barely recognized her own voice as she said, "Ms. Mitchell, are you ready to begin?"

Almost instantly she saw how Beca's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, and she tried to ignore the hurt she felt inside at how Beca thinking that she wasn't who she was had made the brunette visibly relax. At Beca's nod, Chloe tried to let go of her feelings and focus. Taking a deep breath of her own she started to work.

Stepping alongside the shorter woman, Chloe started to roll back the sheet covering skin so familiar, and so yet so new and exciting that it made Chloe ache. Placing her hand on the rolling cart that held the heated massage oil, Chloe pushed her feelings deep inside and took a generous amount of the warm, silky liquid into her hands. From there she quickly transferred it to Beca, starting to rub the oil gently into the smooth, delicate skin of the short brunette's upper back.

Almost immediately she felt the tension, the strain still present in the muscles under her hands. She'd given Beca backrubs before, years ago in what almost felt like a different life, but never before had the short girl been this tense. Of course, she was a lot better now than she had been in those days, and so she started to methodically work through the knots she felt. Loosening the muscles around the knots before moving in to attack the points of greatest tension. The fact that it was a deep tissue massage gave Chloe all the license she needed to really dig in and try to get out ever last hint of tightness.

It was when she was working on Beca's left shoulder that it happened for the first time, and it shocked her so much she stopped for a full second before getting back into her routine. Chloe was bent close in, using her elbow for more leverage and force. She was working on a particularly tight spot just above Beca's shoulder blade when she finally felt it give.

And Beca just groaned in pure relief.

Electricity shot through the ginger like a lightning bolt and she was surprised she didn't jerk in response. Or moan back. Freezing up at the sound was bad enough. Either of the others would have been a hundred times worse. Thankfully Beca didn't seem to notice the lapse, or maybe she just chose not to comment on it. And Chloe started up again, finding the next sore spot and moving along.

The next little while was something Chloe both glossed over, moving on automatic, and took special care to memorize every detail of. She'd seen Beca's bare back once before. In a fateful encounter with the brunette in a shower at Barden University that was etched into her brain forever. On that occasion Chloe was just barely, and it really was a close thing, more focused on the singing aspect of things than on what was going on in front of her. And the main reason was that, at the time, she hadn't really realized how important the short brunette would become over the next several months.

Now that she knew, well, she took time to save the details. To enjoy the way her fingers slid easily over smooth skin. The pure pleasure of hearing Beca's grunts and groans of quiet delight when Chloe finished working a trouble spot. The way the skin curved tantalizingly upwards from the small of the brunette's back over the swell of her ass, just hinting at what lay beyond the edge of the sheet. It took special restraint on Chloe's part to keep her hands just barely under the edge of that sheet. Almost as much restraint as it took to not slip too far down the curving sides of Beca's ribs to touch the soft flesh squished so unglamorously against the massage table.

At the same time, Chloe's conscious mind was focused on her work. Her eyes were half closed, through eye pleasure or concentration she would never be able to recall properly, as she felt her way along the sinuous muscle beneath her fingers. Mr. Vallencia hadn't been joking when he'd told Beca that she had magic hands. Years of amateur experience coupled with her brief stint at a massage school had honed Chloe's natural talents to a peak of excellence that few met. And she used every ounce of her skill working her way down Beca's back.

By the time she'd gotten the shorter girl's torso into a jelly-like state, Chloe reluctantly pulled the sheet upwards, letting its cool softness cover the oil-slicked skin before moving downwards. Very, very carefully she uncovered one of Beca's legs, for her own sanity as much as Beca's. And it must have been a tribute to the skills displayed up above that Beca didn't even flinch as her leg was exposed nearly to the hip, though Chloe took the utmost care in making sure she was still decent.

While not nearly as knotted as her shoulders and back had been, Beca's legs were still a challenge to test the redhead's skill. And Chloe always loved a challenge. Working her way downwards, she had to stifle a giggle when she got to Beca's foot, only to discover that the brunette was apparently quite ticklish there, her foot jerking once in Chloe's grasp before the ginger switched her technique.

In what seemed like no time at all, Chloe had finished Beca's left leg and was moving on to her right. The same process occurred as the ginger worked her way down from Beca's hip to her foot, this time avoiding tickling the adorably small extremity. When Chloe moved upwards and started working Beca's arms, she wondered briefly if the brunette had fallen asleep on the table. It wouldn't have been the first time it had happened to one of Chloe's clients, and she always took it as a compliment. But when the redhead crossed from the right arm to the left, she saw Beca's head move as though following her feet through the tiny portal she'd have looking through the headrest's opening.

Before Chloe had even realized it, and after an interminably long, wonderful time, the redhead realized that she was going to have to have Beca flip over so she could do her front. Clearing her throat, after working some moisture into her mouth she again tried to make her voice sound as un-Chloe-like as possible before speaking.

"Ms. Mitchell." She said, thankful now for the couple drama classes she'd taken back at Barden. Beca's hum of quiet pleasure was all the answer she got in response, so she decided to go on, "I've finished with your back, if you'd like to roll over. I'll just hold the sheet up for your privacy."

That was another idea she'd had, while talking to Stacie that she thought might be pure genius. Stepping to the side, she lifted up the sheet that lay over Beca, holding it completely in front of her. As tempted as she might be to peak around it when she heard the unmistakable sounds of Beca rolling over, she resisted. Doing her utmost to make sure that the brunette could see no more than her fingers holding the edge of the sheet, she waited until Beca had settled onto her back before putting part two of her genius plan into play.

A small step to her left was all it took before she stepped forward and lay the sheet down once more covering the short girl on the table. This time, however, instead of exposing her from the shoulders up, it covered her from hairline to her toes. She was mentally high-fiving herself at having remembered that little tidbit of knowledge dredged up from her time at massage school about how some people would cover the person's entire front while getting the mask. When she finally did roll the sheet down over Beca's face, she had the weighted mask already blocking any line of sight that Beca might have had to her face if the brunette's eyes had happened to be open at the time.

Already congratulating herself on a job well done, Chloe turned her attention back to finishing the job that lay before her.

* * *

Ricardo had been right. Ricardo had been so, so right.

That thought was the most prominent thought in Beca's head for what felt like days, but was mostly like only about 35 minutes.

To say that she had been nervous or reluctant at the outset of this ordeal would have been a gross understatement. Her initial relief at the voice not being the one she remembered, though it had been close, was enough to carry her through until Ch-, the masseuse, had started to remove the sheet. That was when she remembered how exceptionally naked she was underneath its scant protection.

That had always been one of Beca's main problems with massages. Formal massages at least, a friendly backrub, usually given to her by Stacie, was generally done with more layers on, despite the buxom brunette's insistence that naked massages were the best. And the couple times before when she'd had less on than a sheet, well, she and whatever girl was occupying her bed at the time had done considerably more than just a massage. That last had happened, as far as Stacie was concerned, far too rarely though to be any decent judge of things.

Still, she thought she managed to keep her calm well enough hidden, and once the heated oil touched her skin she truly did start to relax. Her immediate fears of her exposure melted away under a delightful combination of the heat of the oil and magical pressure that those mysterious hands were providing her.

And while Beca had, on occasion under Donna's supervision, given a quiet exhalation, this woman's touch drew far, far more. When she heard herself groaning as the girl's elbow dug into her shoulder, Beca thanked every god that might have been listening that she was face down on the table and the masseuse wasn't able to see her furious blush. She was, in fact, so caught up in being embarrassed that she almost didn't notice the slight pause in the action. Which she would have been thankful for had she noticed it, because she would have assumed, incorrectly, that it was in shock to her own reaction.

Needless to say, from that point on, Beca tried her hardest to stay quiet. But it was, as had happened so many years ago when a certain someone invaded her shower and forced her to sing, completely unavoidable. Not willing to make the mental connection about the futility of keeping herself quiet with the futility of avoiding a certain redhead, Beca at least attempted to stifle any audible cues as best she could.

Still she had a feeling that, in the calm quiet of the room, the unknown masseuse whose name she refused to let herself even think couldn't help but notice.

Her second dilemma of nerves came when deliciously strong, yet oddly delicate fingers grazed so close to tender flesh, but never close enough. Her brain, somehow completely on its own, decided to take that moment to remind her just how very long it had been since she had found someone with whom to share her bed. Doing her best to mentally slam that particular door shut, she realized that she was rationalizing with herself that maybe finding someone at the club tonight might not be a bad idea.

Her third dilemma of nerves came when the not-be-named masseuse had finished working her torso and started to rearrange the sheet. This had always been an uncomfortable point for Beca, but with how satisfyingly gelatinous her muscles felt, she hardly twitched as the woman carefully arranged the sheet. She did take note, several seconds too late to have made a difference if it had mattered, that the not-to-be-named masseuse had been exceedingly careful and gentle.

All in all, Beca was thoroughly impressed and was seriously wondering if she was going to have to have a talk with Ricardo about rearranging who handled her weekly massages. Of course, that meant she'd have to get used to saying the woman's name, something she'd so far managed to avoid doing, even to herself thus far. She was just starting to wonder how she wanted to react when it came time to roll over when the voice, so close to the one she feared, but different enough to rule _her_ out came again.

"Ms. Mitchell." The woman asked quietly. Beca could only hum in response, her cognitive functions severely limited by the deliciously luxuriant state she was in. The woman seemed to understand, however, as she went on, "I've finished with your back, if you'd like to roll over. I'll just hold the sheet up for your privacy."

And thus they had arrived at the moment of truth. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, and completely disregarding that saying about cats and what curiosity tended to get them, Beca made the choice to try and see this mysterious Chl- masseuse.

As she felt the sheet lift from her, she lifted her head, turning to the side to try and catch a glimpse of this woman with the magic hands. To Beca's surprised disappointment, the woman had managed to nearly completely block herself from Beca's view. All the brunette was able to see were a pair of legs clothed in the white linen that was the standard uniform for the spa and ending in the off-white shoes that all the employees wore. That and eight delicate fingers capped with light blue nail polish, still sleek and shiny with oil, holding the sheet in place.

Beca continued the movement anyway, figuring she'd have a chance to get a glimpse of the woman when she put the sheet over her front. So it was with a second bout of disappointment that she saw the nearly completely hidden masseuse take a small sideways step before moving forward and laying the sheet over her, completely over her. Releasing her breath in a silent bit of aggravated irritation, Beca waited until she felt the sheet moving again.

When it finally did, she was both delighted and supremely disappointed by what she saw. From her angle she was able to look up a slim, well-proportioned torso that was covered in the same off-white linen of which the pants were made. Her gaze drifted upwards to the underside of the swells of the woman's chest, slightly masked by the semi-bulky material of her shirt only to be blocked by a descending piece of cloth.

She was familiar, of course, with the weighted cloth that they used here at Serenity Spa, during the second portion of massages. It was scented with eucalyptus and several other herbs that Donna had told her about during their first appointment. Donna had explained, too, that it was to allow the guests to continue to relax in a cool, calming darkness as the masseuse went about finishing up his or her work.

This was the first time that Beca had considered asking if it was really necessary.

Managing to keep her frustration in check, Beca drew in a deep breath and let it out as she heard the woman start moving about. It helped that her arms were both under the sheet now and would be, if not difficult, then completely obvious should she start to move them. Putting aside the thought of yanking the mask off as Beca listened to the sounds of the masseuse as she went about getting ready for the end of the massage. By now the short brunette was quite familiar with what was left. Shoulders, scale and forehead, then the tops of her legs and feet, to finish up with the tops of her arms.

Her impatience and desire to see the mystery masseuse calmed as the unknown person moved the sheet carefully down her chest, exposing her shoulders and upper chest. She noted, absently, that again the unknown woman was very careful to tuck the sheet in before Beca began to feel exposed in any way. But it was quickly dismissed from her mind as those magical, magical fingers started digging into the tops of shoulders.

She hadn't properly noticed before, she realized as the woman carefully worked her way over the top of Beca's shoulders and onto the upper part of her chest, quite how warm the masseuse's hands were. Though it could have been from the oil, Beca had a feeling that wasn't the full reason. Regardless, however, she delighted in the feeling of those warm, strong digits kneading into her sore muscles.

While she was working Beca never realized quite how much she used the muscles in her shoulders and chest. It wasn't until she was here, on her back on a massage table, and delicate probing fingers were working away any evidence Beca fully appreciate it.

As the hands, which again stopped tantalizing close yet excruciatingly far from the tops of her breasts, moved to work on her forehead and scalp, Beca let loose another groan which was both frustration and relaxation together. She hadn't even realized she'd done it, honestly, until a slight gust of wind brushed over her exposed and oil skin, telling her that the person standing above her must have chuckled silently in reaction.

Naturally, that drew an immediate blush which hopefully thanks to the mask was unseen by the girl with the magical hands.

Beca wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed at her own uncontrollable reactions to this massage, or to be thoroughly frustrated at being unable to catch sight of the person who was eliciting those uncontrollable reactions. Which was how she found her futilely trying to peer out from under the edge of the mask as she felt the girl move down and, again after carefully exposing one leg, start to work on loosening the muscles of Beca's thigh.

Sadly the mask, like everything else at Serenity Spa, was of top quality and more than sufficient to fully block any attempt of Beca's to peer out along the bottom edge. Giving up the idea as a bad job, the short brunette went back to trying to control her own reactions as, while kneading tense muscles on her right thigh, those astonishingly warm fingers caressed a little farther than Beca expected along her inner thigh.

Immediately the brunette bit her lip, but she knew that a sound, one that sounded to her suspiciously like a moan, had started to slip out. Her whole body tensed as she waited for the reaction, and then her whole body relaxed as it became apparent that her slip had gone unnoticed. Cursing herself for a fool inside her own head, Beca refocused her mind on the task at hand.

Namely not having an orgasm on the table.

By the time her final fifteen minutes were up, however, it was a very near thing. And it also had Beca starting to reconsider her idea of switching from Donna to Chlo-, to this new masseuse. Beca was biting the inside of her cheek rather harder than she would have expected by the time the masseuse had finished up and was tucking her arm back under the sheet carefully. Thankfully for her composure, the last part of the massage, her arms, had helped to calm her down, though less than she would have cared to admit to anyone aloud.

"Ms. Mitchell…" The quiet voice said hesitantly, as though unsure of whether or not Beca was asleep. Beca considered that a victory, that she had managed to contain her reactions internally enough that the unknown masseuse was none the wiser. Humming a response, because she couldn't be sure if her voice would be steady or not, Beca waited for the expected lines. She felt a weight being laid on her stomach and knew that it was her robe. Which was why she wasn't surprised when she heard, "The massage is finished. I'm going to leave the room now, take your time and get up when you're ready. Your robe is right here, and you can head back up the hallway to the hydrotherapy room whenever you want to leave."

Murmuring her thanks, Beca tried not to think of how husky her voice sounded, and was grateful that the masseuse was as unfamiliar with it. As she heard the woman moving towards the exit of the room a sudden desire to know, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, stole over her. Her arm was moving before she even realized it and just as she heard the handle of the door turning she was pulling the mask off her eyes. Finally clear and able to see, Beca's gaze moved towards the door and caught sight of something that had haunted her worst memories, and most deeply buried dreams, for six years. Flowing, bright red hair tied in a loose pony tail.

She barely recognized her voice as her own, the mixture of the remnants of that massage combining with pure shock distorting it to something she'd never heard before as she quietly said one word.

"Chloe."

Everything had gone so well, so perfectly well up until this point. That should have been Chloe's hint. Nothing ever went this well for her. As she was reaching for the handle she heard a noise behind her. Her mind instantly realized it was the sound of an arm being withdrawn from a sheet, but her body was too slow to move any faster. To let her escape what was about to come.

She was halfway through the door when she heard it. Heard her own name spoken in a tone that the redhead had never heard from Beca Mitchell before. And before she could even begin to process what all the subtle intonations meant, she was in full flight mode. She practically ran from the room, the door banging shut behind in a must un-serene way.

Her feet carried her to the employee lounge without direction from her brain. She didn't know if Beca had spoken more, if she had tried to follow, or if she had hurled insults at the closed door. All Chloe knew was that when she finally got to the lounge, she collapsed onto the couch and felt tears running down her cheeks, hot and wet and full of guilt.


	3. The Grand Opening

**A/N:** Hey folks, I'm back! Here I come again with chapter 3 of Forgive and Forget? I want to apologize for this one taking so long (compared to the first two) but I felt that after two almost back to back I had to give some love to The Devil of Barden and Nocturnal by getting a chapter each for them before I came back to it. If you haven't read, by all means jump on and have some fun. I'd like to give a shout out to Zap for the quick turn around on this, thank you my friend! And so with much further muss or fuss, here's Chapter 3! If you love it, please leave a review and let me know what you liked. If you hated it, do the same so I can get better! Enjoy everyone!

* * *

 **The Grand Opening**

Chloe knew that her tears were soaking into the cushion on the back of the couch, she just didn't care. She also knew that most people would say she was overreacting. She didn't care about that either. Chloe was someone who felt things, felt everything.

Every joy in life, she thrived in it. Every misery experienced, she wallowed in it. All the ups, all the downs. To say that Chloe's life was an emotional rollercoaster was the most understated of understatements. Thankfully, for the most part, the redhead was a fairly up person, life was generally good and things were usually positive. But when things went bad, they went bad in the worst ways possible.

What made it all harder for the ginger was that for those people who she allowed closest to her, she felt all their ups and downs just as strongly. Aubrey, who had grown to be the sister she'd never had, was basically an extension of her own emotional well-being. The pair, separated for three years as Chloe had stuck around at Barden, had reunited after Chloe's graduation and it healed parts of the redhead in ways that Chloe probably would never know. The same applied for the rest of the Bellas of her senior (and senior-plus) years at Barden. Stacie, Cynthia Rose, Denise, Amy, Ashley, Jessica, Lily, Flo, and even Emily. They were all vital parts of everything that Chloe was. Even, and perhaps most especially Beca.

When the brunette had walked out on them after the semi-finals, Chloe had felt her words like a knife-wound to her core. It was that that had caused the redhead to finally look at what was going on and make the first attempt at standing up to Aubrey there, backstage at the semi-finals. When she was quickly shouted down she'd started to go after the brunette herself, intent on apologizing immediately. But Aubrey had caught her and said that "true Bellas" don't abandon their sisters before the results come in.

By the time they had, and the girls realized that Beca had left on her own, Chloe had felt deep inside her that it might already be too late. But she was still trying, still keeping things together. The knife-wound may have remained, but as far as the redhead knew the knife was still there, holding things inside that should be. The thought of seeing Beca after her Spring Break had kept her from bleeding out from the wound on the spot. It also made the feeling later, after she learned that Beca had left, all the worse. It wasn't just a clean stab, the knife had been turned, and then drug through her insides.

But she had her sisters to stay strong for. Someone had to stand up to Aubrey, because without Beca there, no one else but Chloe could. The others might have had the strength, but none of them would have taken the initiative without her. On top of all of the up and down emotional stress of getting back into the competition, Chloe had come to a conclusion over her Spring Break that, while painful, Beca's flight from Barden hadn't changed.

The Bellas needed her. She was their heart and soul, which probably was ironic with her being a ginger considering how many times Amy had teased her about not having a soul. But everyone knew it was true.

Aubrey had said so often enough during the freshmen, sophomore, and junior years. So Chloe had decided, for the sake of the Bellas, and maybe one Bella in particular, to do her utmost to fail Russian Literature so she wouldn't have enough credits to graduate. Aubrey had freaked out when Chloe told her, because the blond just didn't understand. Barden was important to Aubrey, sure, and the Bellas were vital. But for Aubrey, everything was about what came after college. Chloe knew where she was needed the most, however. And so she'd planned to stay and had to steel herself for everything that came after the decision was made.

There were finals, both of the academic and a capella variety, which was followed up by the tearful parting with Aubrey at the airport before Chloe flew down to Florida for summer with her family. Over the summer she'd had to endure an endless series of questions from her mom, her dad, and her brothers about how she could have failed Russian Lit, and why she was staying.

She never did explain it in a way which satisfied them. They didn't understand. Thankfully, in the end, Aubrey had. And that was all that Chloe needed. Her sisters were delighted to have her back, and thanks to their win at the ICCA Worlds, the Bellas had had enough clout with the school to get a chapterhouse of their own. Chloe was the first person to move in, and the reason the place smelled like cookies when the rest of the girls had shown up.

For the next three years Chloe was always chasing something she could never quite see. No matter how well or poorly things had gone, things felt just slightly hollow. And she'd never known why. The Bellas had gone on, thanks in large part to Stacie's co-captaining with her, to do decently well. They'd continued to win the ICCAs, but it was a closer thing than most of them realized sometimes. Only Stacie and she saw the score sheets, and Chloe knew that without Stacie's help and her thumb drive of music, things might have gone quite differently.

But, they'd all made it. Well, not all. Denise had left Barden after her sophomore year, transferring to the University of Maine so she could move closer to her mom, who had gotten sick. Thankfully it had all been sort of a false alarm, but Denise had chosen to stay in her home state for the duration of college. She still emailed them from time to time on updates, and as far as Chloe was concerned she was still a Bella.

Watching that class graduate, graduating with them even, after seven years at Barden had been a huge step for Chloe. Thankfully, Aubrey had been there at her side the whole time. All the girls had been there for her, for each other. They had, not without difficulty, convinced Chloe that it was time for her to move on from Barden. Stacie, especially had been a big help, the buxom brunette having replaced Aubrey in some ways during their three years at Barden. Never completely, and with quite a lot more sexual innuendo than Aubrey had ever used in their time as friends, but that was just how Stacie was. And Chloe wouldn't change her for anything.

The noise of a telephone slamming down onto the receiver in Mr. Vallencia's office startled Chloe out of her reminiscing over the past as her head jerked up. Tears still running down Chloe's cheeks the redhead stood up, her eyes nervously looking over at the door to the boss' office. She hadn't known he was here. Hell, she didn't know what _she_ was still doing here. Beca knew she was here. She might not know where the employee lounge was, but she had to know there was a breakroom or something in the building. What if she came looking…?

Feeling panic bubbling up inside her again, Chloe hurried to her locker and quickly keyed in the code. As she was grabbing her purse and other stuff another terrifying thought came along to help speed her on her way. What if Beca had called Mr. Vallencia and complained? She totally could get Chloe fired, if she was the "somewhat famous" in the music industry client he would almost certainly pick Beca over her if she did complain. She was a special favorite of Mr. Vallencia's, so getting her fired probably would only take a phone call.

Slamming her locker shut, Chloe ran out of the building to her car, thankfully seeing no one as she dashed down the halls. She figured if she was going to get fired, she'd rather it happen over the phone than just after she'd been crying her eyes out.

Unlocking her car door she slid in and had to pause for a moment. Tears were still running down her cheeks and she needed to get them under control if she was going to drive anywhere. Taking a few gulping deep breaths she managed to stem the flow of tears and bring herself into a decent enough shape to make the drive home.

Starting up the car she pulled out of the lot quickly, not looking around to see how many other cars there were. Once on the road and a few blocks away she hit the voice dial button on her steering wheel and waited a moment for the voice to prompt her before she said, "Call Stacie Conrad on mobile."

The phone rang a couple times before Stacie picked up. Chloe could hear the sounds of traffic and cars in the background which meant that her med school friend was probably heading home. Stacie's words, however, almost sent the redhead into another fit of crying as she said, "Awwww yeah. Hot massage table sex. It's been, like 70 minutes. You two totally did it on the table, didn't you? I told you angry massage table sex was the way to go!"

"Stacie! Oh, em, aca-gee! I don't even… No! There was no table sex, no sex of any kind. Nothing even close to sex! But I'm so going to get fired anyway…" Chloe said, tears stinging her eyes as she tried to keep from crying.

"Oh shit… Damn, Chlo. What happened? She figured it out, huh?" Stacie said, her voice changing suddenly to the concerned, caring friend that Stacie normally was. Chloe knew that, if she asked it, girls' night would be canceled and it would be a night of chick flicks, romcoms, ice cream, and vodka to help soften the blow. Aubrey and Stacie, they were her girls, and they had her back.

"It had been going so well… I just… Five more seconds, maybe ten, and she wouldn't have even known." Chloe said before hastily recapping the massage, then how Beca spotted her, said her name without a question in her voice, and how Chloe had fled. Then she added about hearing Mr. Vallencia's phone being slammed and how Beca probably called and had her fired.

"I mean… I don't know, Chloe. I don't think Beca would do that. Yeah, she's pissed at you guys, but the Beca I know…" Stacie said before a slight hitch told Chloe she was receiving a call on her other line and the brunette's voice trailed off. Stacie was, Chloe knew, looking to see who was calling to see if it was more important than her. A second later the other girl spoke again, and there was serious concern in her voice as she said, "Oh shit! That's Beca calling me… Do you want me to take it? Or let it go to voicemail?"

"Fish-sticks and fiddle-faddle!" Chloe said, and then glared at the screen of her phone showing Stacie's picture as the brunette started laughing on the other end of the line. Ok, so she was kind of used to the girls giving her a hard time about cursing unless it was really, _really,_ appropriate to her mind, but that didn't mean she needed the brunette laughing at her right now. Snapping at the other girl she said, "Stacie, Stacie! Just, just take the call. It'll be suspicious otherwise, right? Call me when you're done, though."

After a promise to do just that, Stacie hung up. And Chloe started freaking out that her friend might now be in serious trouble too…

* * *

For a solid fifteen seconds Beca sat stock still, staring at the closed door of the massage room in utter shock, then she started to move. She got one foot off the massage table before the sheet fell away and she remembered she was completely naked. And that brought back all the _other_ memories of what had been happening to her over the last fifty-odd minutes and her ass dropped back onto the massage table with a thwacking sound that echoed in the quiet room.

Her hands were shaking as she brought one up to run through her hair, a nervous habit she knew she had but could do nothing about at the moment. Resting her elbows on her knees she dropped her head into her hands and thought, just furiously thought for a solid minute about everything that had happened since she walked into the door of the spa. She didn't blame Cindy, Carla, or even Ricardo for what had happened. It wasn't any of their fault that one of the people whom she had most wanted to avoid in the world had just spent nigh unto an hour with her in a very intimate way.

No, there was really only one person to blame for that. And she'd just run out of the room.

Taking a deep, calming breath, then another three just for good measure, Beca rose from the table and slipped on the sandals before retrieving her robe. She pulled it on slowly, noticing that her shaking hands had stilled slightly in the intervening minutes. Pulling her hair free from the robe she cautiously approached the door, listening for anything from the hallway.

Not hearing a sound, Beca slowly opened it up and peeked outside. She wasn't sure what she expected, though Chloe standing out there to ambush her as she'd once done in the shower wasn't completely out of the question. However the hallway was free of redheads, and Beca slowly and quietly made her way to the stairs. Pausing she noticed another hallway leading away from the massage rooms that she'd never been down before.

A part of her, a reckless part that was still furious with the redhead and all the rest of the Bellas except Stacie, wanted her to walk down that hall. It wanted her to storm around the building in a towering rage until she found the girl who had so recently turned her into a quivering pile of goo with a well-practiced application of her hands.

As Beca's mind conjured up memories of those hands and all that they'd done, the reckless urge subsided and she turned to head up towards the hydrotherapy room. Walking into the quiet room and hearing the sound of water splashing and the soft music, Beca sighed and fought with herself internally. She was right to be mad at the Bellas. She knew she was. She had only done her very best to try and make them better, she had gone above and beyond to help them out. And every single one of them owed all their titles to her. But did they give her even a single thank you afterwards? No.

Well, that wasn't _entirely_ their fault.

Looking around the room Beca saw no sign of Carla, so she assumed that the older woman must have taken off. She couldn't blame her, it was late after all, and the spa had technically closed an hour ago. Still, it would have been nice to have had someone to talk to. Instead of crying over spilled milk she instead slipped off her robe and settled into the nearly scalding water of the hot tub and let her head fall back onto the tiles as she thought back to her tempestuous arrival in LA five years earlier.

She'd hailed a cab outside the hall after Semis, her eyes brimming with tears at the utter rejection she'd just had and immediately ordered him to drive her to her dad's house. It wasn't a short trip, but the cabbie didn't seem to mind. He didn't even ask why she was crying. Hell, he barely said more than a dozen words to her the entire trip. He was, in her mind, the perfect companion for the tear-filled trip.

She arrived outside her dad's house after the long drive to see a light on in the den, but the rest of the house dark and quiet in the night. She used the credit card he'd given her for emergencies to pay the fare, and then hurried to knock on the door. To say that her father was surprised to see her, still in her Bella uniform, was an understatement, but he welcomed her in right away. He had, apparently, been up late grading some papers since Sheila was out of town.

He'd listened to her tale of the last several months of her life up to and including the betrayal of a few hours earlier in relative silence. When he finally did open his mouth after her long monologue, she cut him off and pleaded with him to just let her go, to get away from Barden and start her time in LA a few months early. In the end he had accepted and about a week later, Beca was on her way to Los Angeles. She had had a few things to wrap up, including her gesture that she felt was above and beyond, but despite herself she couldn't stop caring about the Bellas just a little bit. They had been, despite her efforts to keep them at bay, the closest things to what she could have called friends she'd had in a long while.

Later on she'd realize that that was why their rejection of her, their betrayal in her eyes, had hurt so much. Some of them, a couple really, had known what she'd gone through when her parents split up. They had known what loyalty and sticking by someone meant to her. So when they all turned their backs, well… But Beca couldn't just turn her feelings off quite that easily. Which was why, thanks to Stacie's roommate she'd slipped into Stacie's room while the brunette was out of town on Spring Break and left her parting gift for the freakishly sexual girl who had become one of Beca's two closest friends at Barden.

She made no attempt to contact the other. The one who had known _exactly_ what loyalty meant to Beca. She'd had her chance. She'd averted those insanely blue eyes to look at everything but her when Beca looked for someone to stick with her. So no, she made no effort on that part, the one gesture was enough to soothe her guilt over leaving them.

Her dad took the break off to fly out to LA with her, he had finally started to understand the gravity of the error he'd made all those years ago, and was bound and determined to do right by Beca this time. Together they had found a small apartment for the brunette to rent with him and her mom splitting the cost until she was able to support herself. He also let her keep the card "for when she needed it" in his words. Towards the end of the break he'd had to fly back to Atlanta for the rest of the semester, but they parted with a hug and Beca's promise to keep him apprised of her situation.

Everything was going smooth until she got a text from an unknown, but well recognized number. She'd deleted all the Bellas contact info from her phone the moment she'd gotten off the plane in LA, but by this point in time she'd had the number memorized. It read: "Hey Becs! So Bree just got some awesome news. We're back in! The Footnotes cheated, so we're in! Big Bellas meeting Monday after the break, I want you there. I need you there… I need to explain. Please?"

Seeing that text, that Chloe thought she could explain, reopened the already raw wound inside Beca and had the short brunette seeing red. And not the red of her former best friend's hair. She didn't even realize she'd done anything until she heard her phone shattering against the wall. Well, she supposed at least now she didn't have to answer the text, Beca realized as she saw the fragments of her phone still skittering along the floor of her apartment.

It had been better that way, Beca mused, the hot water surrounding her in its comforting embrace. She'd gotten a new phone the following day, texted her dad to let him know she'd gotten a new number, and gone about paying her dues. In the end, it had worked out well. She had heard from her dad via text that Bellas had won the ICCAs and her stomach had lurched a little with happiness. She had convinced herself that it was only because they had obviously used the set list that she'd prepared and left on the thumb drive for Stacie to find and for no other reason. She convinced herself of that because it was a bright spot in a day filled with fetching people's coffee orders and lunch requests. It meant that her music was good, her skills were good. After that day she'd walked a bit taller around the office, well as tall as she could manage in her boots.

Which was probably why when her boss had asked for suggestions she'd been so buoyed with her own musical genius that she'd volunteered an idea. He shot it down after a moment. But he had at least considered it, however briefly. And later that week, when she'd run into him in the break room, he had said that her idea had merit and suggested that maybe she speak up more. She had been floating on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

And, really, that's how it had all started. After that she spoke up again, at another meeting, and was shot down again. Then for a third time. And then for a fourth. But while each one hurt, just a little, she felt she had something to offer.

The fifth time she suggested an idea, it didn't get shot down. Her boss, seemingly slightly reluctant, gave it a chance. And it worked. She'd known it would, of course, but after he had switched off the equipment and told the artist he'd done good work he had spun his chair to face her. And he just smiled.

A muffled sound from somewhere in the spa brought Beca back from her trip down memory lane. She couldn't even really identify what it had been, but it did remind her that she was no doubt pruning up in the hot, welcoming waters and also that she had a show to get ready for.

As she got up out of the hot tub her eyes found the door to the treatment rooms and she sighed again. She still wasn't sure what to do about the redhead. Grabbing her robe and shaking her head she made her way to the locker room and took a quick shower to rinse off before getting her clothes back on. Glancing at her phone she saw several emails and a couple of text messages. Thumbing the device on she glanced first at the texts, email could wait until she was at her computer. The two messages were from her assistant, Laura, and were about the show tonight. Just reminders that were unnecessary, but Beca appreciated them nonetheless.

Pulling two crisp hundreds from her wallet on autopilot as she left the changing room she was already hitting the button to call Laura back. With a smile and a wave for Cindy she left the bills on the counter, the receptionist would know what to do with them, and walked out as Laura picked up.

"Hey DeeJay, you finally got my messages, eh?" The young girl's voice called out teasingly from the other end of the line. Beca could hear the sound of wind whipping across the mic pickup and knew that her assistant was probably driving with the top down on her convertible. Beca forced herself not to roll her eyes.

That girl loved that car. Apparently her and her dad had worked on cars a lot when she was a kid, so fond memories and whatnot. When they had been out for lunch one day about a year after she'd started working for Beca, and Beca had finally realized how utterly dependent on her she had become, they had seen the car for sale at a lot across the street from the café. Laura had insisted they walk over after the meal, just to check it out.

It was a 1967 Ford Mustang, a classic American muscle car. Or at least, that's what Laura had told her as the girl tried not to drool all over it. A piece of history, true Americana, she had called it. Beca tried not to scoff. She'd never really been an old car girl. Sure, she could appreciate the history of it and all, but she was all about the new. In a way, it was like her and music. She could love a classic old song, but it didn't stop her from wanting to take it and mix it up, mash it together with something else to make it vibrant and new again.

In the end Beca had bought the car for Laura as a kind of bonus. Laura tried to refuse it, but Beca just ended up putting the keys on the hood and saying that if Laura didn't want it, then whoever picked up the keys next was getting a free car. The girl was invaluable to Beca, and the short brunette was happy that she'd found a way to show her just how much Beca appreciated all the work she put in.

"Oh shut it, you." Beca said, rolling her eyes. She walked over to her baby and it detected the key in her purse as she approached. The door handles, which had been seamlessly sunken into the doors, popped out as the door unlocked. She grinned, just a little bit, as she always did. Sliding into the front seat of her Tesla Model S she pressed the button to start it and told Laura to hold on as her car silently turned on and the built-in Bluetooth connected with her phone and took over. Once she was sure it was set she buckled herself in and said, "You know my schedule better than I do, you know very well where I was and why I didn't answer."

"I do, but I have to give you a hard time whenever I can. I'm pretty sure that's my job." Laura said, the wind still rushing past in the background, though slightly more quietly now. Beca assumed, considering what time it was, that her assistant was just getting off the highway near her house.

"Ummm, actually I'm almost positive that that _isn't_ in your job description." Beca said, pulling her Tesla out onto the road out front of the spa and turning to head home. She wanted a real shower and needed to get her stuff before the gig.

"Hmmm, I'll check when I get into the office Monday, but I'm pretty sure I wrote it on the latest job description you gave me, so yeah it is." Laura said in a completely innocent tone. The short brunette wouldn't actually put it past the uppity girl to do just that.

"You know, I'm not even surprised by that." Beca said with a laugh. Rolling her eyes she held in her sigh, but only barely. After a moment of silence in which they both acknowledged the absurdity of the situation, Beca continued, "So, yeah, about your texts. I knew about the first one, the song requests the owner gave us. I already have them on my list. For the second, it shouldn't be an issue."

"Good. I knew you probably already had 'em covered, but it's my job to help you do your job so…" Laura said, somewhat fondly. Beca couldn't help the smile that grew on her own lips at the other girl's tone. She had almost managed to put out the events of the last twenty minutes until Laura asked, "So, how was the massage? Donna get your all loosened up?"

"Ugh. You had to remind me." Beca groaned. Taking a deep breath she mentally ran over of her schedule for the next week. It was fairly light, and she _really_ didn't want to deal with Chloe in any way, shape, or form at the moment. Figuring she could probably reschedule her appointment for the next week Beca added, "I'll tell you about it on Monday. Also I need you to call Serenity and cancel my appointment for next week."

"What? Why? Your week isn't that busy, did something happen?" Laura asked, her tone immediately changing from gently teasing to concerned. Beca knew she had to temper what she said, because if she unloaded all of her thoughts on the other girl that Laura would promptly turn her car around and drive straight to the spa and demand the redhead get fired.

"No. I mean, yes, but nothing that… Don't worry about, I'll tell you on Monday. Just, please, cancel the appointment for now, ok?" Beca said, wanting to rub the bridge of her nose, but deciding that driving down the road probably wouldn't be the best time to block her vision. When she heard Laura's sigh come through her car's speakers she knew that, for the time being, the other girl was dropping the subject, which at least gave her the weekend to come up with some way to explain everything about the Bellas to her assistant.

"Fine, but Beca…" Laura said, letting her words trail off, since neither of them needed her to finish that sentence. After all their time working together Laura was fiercely loyal to the short brunette, and Beca knew that she'd have to be careful when she told her about Chloe. The wind coming through the line stopped entirely and Beca heard the other girl's car door open, confirming her suspicion that Laura was on her way home, as Laura spoke again, "So Stacie came by office just before I left to get her passes for the show tonight. I was going to get her on the guest list, but she said she didn't want VIP access, just general admission."

"Wait, Stacie… God damnit, that's right, she wanted… She wanted three passes for tonight, right?" Beca said, her mind making a connection suddenly that she didn't like. When Laura confirmed, Beca just growled and said, "She told me it was for a couple of her classmates. I might have to kill that girl tonight. I gotta go, I need to call her now!"

Barely giving Laura a chance to say goodbye and wish her luck, Beca hung up and immediately had her phone call Stacie. It rang several times, and Beca was just starting to think that the busty brunette was going to let it go to voicemail when the line picked up and she heard Stacie's voice say, "Hey Becs! What's up tiny DJ?"

"Don't you fucking tiny DJ me, Stace. I'm not in the damn mood. Who are you bringing to the fucking show tonight? So help me god, if it's who I think it is we're done…" Beca said fiercely. If the other girl had invited Chloe and, heaven forbid, Aubrey to her show, Beca might just have security toss them all out on their asses.

"Wow, angry midget much?" Stacie said, but Beca thought that she heard something in the other woman's tone that she didn't like. However, when Stacie spoke up again, she seemed completely sincere as she said, "I told you when I asked for the tickets, Becs. They're for me and a couple of classmates. We need a break from studying, studying, and more studying. If it's a big deal we can not come, I guess…"

"Stacie…" Beca said warningly. She wasn't sure, really, whether she could trust the other girl. And that was a problem for Beca, because she wanted to. Over the last couple years Stacie had become a good friend, one of Beca's very few here in LA. And she didn't want to throw away all the time and effort she'd put into the friendship.

"Beca…?" Stacie asked, her tone again its typical friendly and flirty mix. Beca sighed. She didn't have any proof, though she was almost positive that the busty brunette knew that Chloe, and probably Aubrey too considering they had been practically inseparable at Barden, were now in LA. However, Stacie also knew how Beca felt about the pair. She decided to put her faith in trust, but with a veiled warning.

"Nothing, I guess. Have fun at the show tonight. I'll probably be too busy to come down and say hi, though. And if I see them there…" She let her words hang in the air for a brief pause to emphasize them. When she was sure she'd gotten her point across, and she saw her house was rapidly approaching on the GPS, she said, "I gotta go. Enjoy the show. Bye."

She didn't give the other girl a chance to respond before she hung up the phone. Stacie wouldn't be too upset, especially since Stacie probably knew that Beca knew that Stacie knew that those two were in LA. Pulling into her driveway the gate opened when she approached and she tried to get the events of the evening out of her brain. Tonight DJ Ti.B was going to be rocking the house at Sigma to celebrate its grand opening, and Beca had to start getting into performance mode.

* * *

Chloe was restlessly pacing back and forth in her living room. Every time she made a complete circuit she'd lift her phone to see if she'd somehow missed a call from Stacie. Every time she looked, though, the display said nearly the same thing and the changing time merely mocked her. For what must have been the thousandth time since hanging up with the brunette, Chloe considered calling her and finding out what Beca wanted.

Or, more accurately, how pissed at Stacie the short brunette was for her having hidden the fact that she was in LA from Beca for so long. She was just stopping to think that maybe she really should call Stacie, it had been almost an hour since she'd hung up with the other girl, when a knock sounded at the door.

"Chloe! Can you get that, I'm still getting dressed." Aubrey's voice called loudly from her bedroom. The blond was aware that Chloe was nervous about something, but the redhead hadn't explained when she'd blazed through the door forty-five minutes earlier looking almost as bad as Aubrey had after their first appearance at the ICCA Finals.

It had taken all of the blond's considerable wheedling skills to get that it had something to do with a phone call with Stacie, but nothing more. After twenty minutes of talking to her, Aubrey had convinced Chloe to go take a quick shower and get ready. She'd promised to watch the redhead's phone in case Stacie called and even interrupt her in the shower should the brunette call while she was in there.

In the end Chloe had accepted the offer, knowing that she had to get ready anyway if they were to have any hope of making it out tonight in a decent fashion, but it didn't stop her from checking her phone about ten times a minute while she got dressed. She had only half paid attention to what she was pulling out of her closet, and thankfully Aubrey had come in for her opinion on the blond's choice of outfit otherwise Chloe might have gone out in a hot pink top and green yoga pants.

Thankfully the blond got her sorted out and with a skill drilled into her during her seven years as a Bella, Chloe managed to pace restlessly up and down their living room in a short, black, leather miniskirt and black, high-heeled ankle boots with ease. The blond had also selected a relatively modest black and white, striped shirt with a moderately low neckline. Fairly conservative for club attire for Chloe, but the redhead hadn't really cared much.

Hurrying over to the door she opened it and felt her jaw drop at the sight in front of her. Her eyes goggled a little as she took in Stacie from her silvery high heels up the many miles of leg that the brunette was showing to take in the ridiculously short and impossibly tight silver dress she had on. The dress was so tight that as Chloe's eyes reached the brunette's impressive bosom, the redhead wasn't even sure of the physics necessary to keep them contained inside the silvery material. The ample cleavage that Stacie had on display was accentuated only with a simple silver necklace that, unless Chloe missed her guess, was the one which Aubrey had given to the brunette as her parting gift as Captain when she'd graduated.

When her eyes finally found Stacie's she saw that the taller girl was smirking at her, and she made sure to close her mouth before she drooled. She had never had any allusions about the fact that Stacie was crazy hot, but dressed like she was, Chloe was certain that the brunette would probably cause people to have heart attacks when they saw her.

And she still couldn't figure out how her tits stayed in the dress. Reaching out she tentatively prodded one with her finger as she asked, "Uh, Stace… How do they stay in there?"

"Very carefully, so stop that! Can I come in or do I have to wait in the hall?" The brunette asked with a laugh as she slapped Chloe's hand away. After stepping aside to let Stacie in Chloe closed the door carefully before rounding on her. Stacie looked nervous as Chloe met her gaze, but otherwise she seemed no worse for wear.

"So? What happened? What did Beca say? Is she going to get me fired? I just know they'll pick her over me, I mean, she's like a famous producer now you said. I'm just a nobody massage therapist. Why didn't you call me? You said you were going to call. I've been freaking out over here, damnit!" Chloe said, all so fast that Stacie opened her mouth several times to reply, only to be bowled over by the redhead. Eventually Stacie had to cover Chloe's mouth with her hand to get a word in edgewise.

"Jesus Chlo', calm down already." Stacie said once she'd finally shut the redhead up. After looking into her eyes for a few seconds, though, Stacie just sighed and went on, "Don't worry about Beca. She was pissed I didn't tell her you guys were in LA. But she didn't even mention having you fired, so will you stop freaking out about that?"

"Oh my god, she's going to hate you too now. And after you finally got back into her good graces. I should have just told Mr. Vallencia no. I could have, you know? I mean, he probably wouldn't have fired me for that…" Chloe said after prying Stacie's hand away from her mouth. She spun on the spot and started pacing again as she realized that she'd probably ruined Stacie's friendship with Beca now too.

"Seriously Chloe, to quote Aubrey here, you need to take the dramatics down a notch, mmmmkay." Stacie said, catching hold of the redhead's arm and bringing her pacing to a halt. When Chloe stopped she saw Stacie look her up and down and smile approvingly at her outfit, the girl always did have an excellent sense of style, and so the redhead at least felt relief that she and Aubrey hadn't completely messed up with her outfit choice. As Chloe freed her arm and walked over to perch on the arm of the couch, Stacie spoke up again and said, "Beca isn't going to hate me. Yeah, she's mad, but she'll get over it. We'll meet for lunch or something next week and talk it out. I know how I can explain it to her in a way she'll understand. We'll be alright."

"You know, I don't know that you ever really explained how you made her talk to you in the first place, actually…" Chloe said as she thought back on their conversations regarding the short brunette. All that Stacie had really told them was that she'd met Beca a year or so earlier and that, through some extenuating circumstances, she'd managed to become friends with the brunette again. Of course, she hadn't really explained what had happened, but both girls had been so shocked to hear that she even spoke with Beca to dig deeper.

"Well… It's kind of a long story." Stacie said and she looked a little nervous as she said it. Before she could elaborate though, a door opening deeper into the apartment heralded Aubrey's arrival into the living room. Both her and Stacie turned to take in the blond's outfit of choice and she couldn't help but whistle approvingly.

Aubrey had chosen an elegant red dress that hugged every curve she had. It dropped from a deep, v-shaped neckline that showed off a decent amount of Aubrey's cleavage and hugged her ribcage and hips before flaring out slightly as it fell to just below her knees. Aubrey's well-toned, stocking-clad calves ended in a pair of strappy, black high-heels that Chloe adored and wished she had for herself whenever the redhead saw them. And yet, despite how gorgeous the blond looked, Aubrey still goggled at Stacie's outfit when she finally entered the room.

"Sweet Aca-Gods, Stacie. Are you trying to kill people? You said we had tickets to get in, that we didn't need to dress slutty to impress the doorman." Aubrey said, eyeing the tall brunette's barely contained chest warily. Chloe chuckled a little as she saw Stacie preen just slightly under the blond's gaze.

"We don't, I just wanted to look nice." Stacie said somewhat coquettishly, which was odd to Chloe's ears coming from the normally brash brunette. Chloe was somewhat surprised to see Aubrey blushing just slightly and was wondering what part of the conversation she was missing as the two eyed each other.

"Yeah, well, dressed like that you look like you're ready to find someone to take you home for something not so nice." Aubrey said, finally breaking her gaze away from the busty brunette. Chloe watched her walk over to where she'd left her purse and start transferring the necessities into the small, red clutch she had picked to go with her outfit.

"What makes you think I haven't already found someone I'm hoping will take me home for some not so nice things?" The brunette shot back, and Chloe couldn't help but giggle. Of course, she was well aware that Aubrey and Stacie had hooked up after their performance at the ICCAs, but as far as she was aware it had only been the once. Aubrey had been gone from Barden shortly after and Stacie had moved on to other conquests. Apparently the brunette wanted to try for a second go around.

"Then I think you're forgetting the fact that we'd both agreed it was a one-time thing. 'No remorse, no repent', like you'd said… Besides, you have a life here in LA and who knows when I'll be picking up and leaving to go home." Aubrey said, her back still to the two girls by the couch. But Chloe could tell by the slump of Aubrey's shoulders that the blond was hurting with the words.

"You know what…? I'm not nearly drunk enough for this conversation. Come on, ladies. Let's go get some jiggle juice and get our dance on!" Chloe said, interrupting the awkward moment and reminding both girls that she was still right there. They both seemed content to put the discussion aside for the time being, but Chloe had a feeling it might come up again. This hadn't been the first time Stacie had hinted at hooking up with Bree again. It was just the most blatant.

As Stacie and Bree composed themselves, Chloe pulled out her phone and opened her Uber app to call for a ride. After a few taps she had one hurrying towards them to take them to Sigma. Tucking her phone into her clutch she said, "Alright, our Uber is on its way, should be here in five. Let's head downstairs."

As promised their chariot, modestly disguised in the form of an Uber driver's Honda Civic, arrived outside the apartment building in just over five minutes. The driver, a not unattractive guy in maybe his late twenties, seemed quite happy to have three attractive ladies pile into his car, even though all three of them climbed into the back seat. It was a little crowded, but the three of them didn't mind that much. And judging by Aubrey's yelp of surprise and the way she smacked Stacie's leg when they first sat down, the blond had gotten stuck in the middle, Stacie had no doubt taken advantage of the situation and pinched Bree on the ass. Chloe giggled and Aubrey spared a glare for her before the car took off.

The trip to Sigma was a little bit longer than Chloe had expected, and thankfully the driver just put on some music for the trip, possibly too intimidated by the three smoking hot ladies currently in his car. Chloe took the chance to pull out her phone and do a little more research on this mysterious DJ that Stacie was taking them to see. She'd said when she'd first told the other two that she had gotten tickets from one of the doctors at her hospital who had had to cover for another doctor that had taken leave that the "elusive" DJ Ti.B was one of the hottest names playing the LA club circuit. She said that the tickets for one of their events usually went for upwards of a hundred bucks a piece.

Naturally Chloe and Aubrey had jumped at the chance. But in the week or so since they'd known about the opening, Chloe had been sporadically doing bits of digging for information about the DJ. She'd easily found some music on Youtube and had been hooked from the first song she selected. It was a simply incredible blend of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" and Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" that had had Chloe dancing around her room despite only having been half-dressed in bra and panties. When Aubrey came in to see what the commotion was about, the blond had smiled at Chloe and joined in the dancing a little.

A few other internet queries had been sent out as well, but aside from music there was very little information that Chloe could glean about the DJ. She, and Chloe only assumed it was a she because the few pictures showed long brunette hair, was apparently super concerned about her privacy. Even going so far as to wearing…

"We're here!" Stacie's voice interrupted the redhead's musing and brought her head whipping up to see lights flashing some distance in front of them. Massive spotlights bracketed the entrance to the club and were flashing wildly into the night sky, and there was a line wrapped around the building. Their driver had, quite wisely it seemed, stopped about half a block away from the club. It made sense, too, since the curb area right outside the entrance was quite packed with limos and other very nice cars depositing people right at the door.

Chloe goggled at the sight before she realized that Aubrey was moving beside her. Sliding out of the car, she thanked the driver somewhat absently and watched as a limo in front of the club drove off and what looked like a Maserati pulled up. A couple of girls climbed out of the car, Chloe vaguely recognized one of them as being a star from some tv show she was tangentially aware of, and a valet stepped up to take the gorgeous vehicle to a safe spot. The two girls hurried their way inside amid the flash of camera bulbs from paparazzi who were lining one side of the club's main entrance.

"Jesus, Stacie… How did your doctor friend manage to get these tickets?" Aubrey asked as they watched the Maserati pull away. From where they stood it was now obvious that there were two separate lines out in front of the club. One was decidedly smaller than the other, and as the girls approached they realized that the shorter line was for people who had tickets to the event.

The other line, it seemed, were for people who desperately _wanted_ tickets to the show, or were hoping they could get in once everyone else was inside, and possibly after some people had left. At least that was the impression Chloe got as they walked towards the club and people started screaming out offers to buy their tickets. The redhead heard someone offer two hundred bucks for it and she was really tempted, but by this point in time her curiosity over the mysterious DJ was well and truly piqued so she wasn't going to sell her ticket for anything.

When the trio walked up to the rear of the shorter line a well-muscled man in a nice suit politely asked for their tickets with casual disinterest. As Stacie pulled them from her wristlet and handed them over he looked them over very carefully, ran a small black light flashlight over them and nodded with a smile. Handing them back he then asked for IDs, which all three produced and he looked over much less carefully before nodding and handing them back. Each girl got a stamp on her wrist, the Greek letter Sigma, which was visible under black light Chloe assumed because it was relatively invisible otherwise. With a casual wave he gestured towards the shorter line with a polite, "Welcome to Sigma."

After that it was just a waiting game. Thankfully it seemed that they were letting folks from the ticket holder line into the club in between various VIPs who pulled up to the front of the club. That was how, about ten minutes later, the trio found themselves walking into the dark, slightly smokey room with the low thumping beat of bass already resounding through it. Chloe could already feel her earlier tension and stress over what had happened at the spa starting to drain out of her and the urge to dance was quickly replacing it.

As they were making their way up to one of the bars in the club, Chloe surveyed the place quickly. The décor seemed fairly club standard with various levels of dancing, gyrating bodies packed in as tightly as they could get. Along one whole wall of the club was a raised area that held a rather massive bar and a dozen or so tables and booths. Most of them were packed, but it seemed that there might be a couple open if they moved fast. Along a separate wall was a staircase that led up to a loft area that was apparently the VIP section as it was roped off with two more massive men in sharp suits standing at it. Attached to the VIP section by a short walkway and standing out over the dance floor was the DJ booth. The redhead could just barely make out a short dude with glasses spinning at the tables up there, which told her that DJ Ti.B had yet to arrive.

By the time the girls got up to the bar, Chloe's hands were over her head and she was dancing as she walked, swaying her way across the floor. When Aubrey caught sight of her, the blond just rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on and it told Chloe that tonight was going to be aca-awesome! Stacie, with her ample cleavage on display for the world, was easily able to catch the eye of one of the bartenders who hustled over and gave the brunette his undivided attention. Not long after that Chloe was delighted to find a shot and a nearly overflowing Appletini in front of her.

"To girls' night out!" Chloe said, raising the shot up to clink against the shot glasses of the other two. She was so happy that she'd decided to go through with girls' night instead of canceling, it was just what she needed after her day. And she hoped that the others managed to enjoy themselves as much.

"And to getting back what we lost!" Stacie added before they could toss back their shots. Chloe thought it an odd thing to say, but when she saw the tall brunette shoot a look at Aubrey, the redhead figured she knew what Stacie meant.

"Cheers, pitches!" Chloe agreed, and all three of them threw back what turned out to be rather expensive tequila. Apparently being a med student paid pretty well, Chloe figured, as the heat of the alcohol burned a trail down her throat. Wincing only slightly she slammed the shot glass back onto the countertop and felt more than heard the other girls' glasses slamming down as well. With a wink and a grin she picked up her Appletini and turned towards the section with tables and booths.

It didn't take her long to spot one, and after a sip from her drink she motioned for Bree and Stacie to follow her. They swooped down on the table just in the nick of time too, as another group of girls was only a few steps behind Chloe. Grinning her friendliest grin at the three girls who looked rather upset, Chloe slid onto one of the stools and laid her purse on the table.

She was just starting to wonder how long it would be before the real show started when the music from the last song faded out and a voice came over the speakers, "Alright LA, I hope you're having a good time tonight here at Sigma!"

A huge roar went up from the crowd and Chloe heard herself giving a hearty scream too. She didn't feel too embarrassed about it, though, because Stacie screamed with her. As did basically the entire club. The DJ apparently liked what he'd heard because he was laughing a little as he went on, "Hah, alright, yeah. Well, I'm DJ Kai and it's been a blast playing for you folks, but tonight you're in for a special treat. I hope y'all are ready for one of my all-time favorites. Give it up, LA! It's DJ. T.I.B!"

The club, which hadn't been quiet to start with, seemed to explode with noise as the so-called DJ Kai backed away from the turn tables and the lights dimmed. The smoke machines, which Chloe figured must have been mounted on the ceiling somehow, kicked into gear as the room was suddenly hazy and dark. Lights began to flicker through the smoke, bursts of green, blue, and white as the crowd kept on cheering. Chloe caught a slight glimpse of movement before the noise, which had subtly been rising in the speakers, broke into a crescendo.

"Are you ready, LA? Let's do this!" A voice rang out through the speakers, artificial and synthetic, but undeniably energized. Chloe had known it was coming, she'd read that DJ Ti.B always spoke with a synthesizer, but to hear it in person was literally giving her chills. As the shadowed form of the DJ started speaking, two glaring spotlights flared to life and lit the entire booth in bright light. It glinted almost blindingly off the gleaming metallic Phantom of the Opera style mask the figure was wearing.

This too, Chloe had known from her research, and it intrigued the redhead to no end. However right there, in that moment, it was possibly the most amazing sight she'd ever seen. If one looked very carefully they could just see one high, delicate cheekbone exposed by the half-mask. But as soon as the music started playing, Chloe didn't even stop to question, she just needed to dance.


	4. The Fallout

**A/N:** Hey guys, wow this chapter took a while. I blame Zap, though really it's more accurate that school and life rarely give me time to write anymore. If it makes anyone feel better it's really long to make up for being so slow in coming! Regardless, I hope you guys all enjoy it. I know I had fun writing it. Please leave a review and let me know what you think, it's the reviews which keep us writers coming back to write! Enjoy!

* * *

 **The Fallout**

The rhythmic thuds of the bass beats were fairly muted as Beca sat in the office she had taken over for tonight's event. It was part of her pre-show routine, find a relatively quiet place and just sit and take in everything. She had found over the years that she'd been in LA that it helped her to calm down and get things under control. It helped her to find her balance before putting on her alter-ego persona and standing under the flashing lights of the DJ booth.

Except getting things under control and finding her calm was proving difficult tonight, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. Beca still wasn't certain if she trusted Stacie, but she was trying… Trying to give the busty brunette the benefit of the doubt. They hadn't spoken since Beca had essentially hung up on her during her drive back from Serenity. In a way, Beca was actually glad for that. Stacie hadn't tried to reach out to her with explanations or excuses and Beca hadn't been interrupted as she got ready for the show.

It wasn't her first grand opening, but each time she'd helped to usher in a new club, a new temple to her guiding light of music in all its forms, Beca was a little nervous. She had never been able to explain it. It's just the way things were. So that's why she had always made it explicit in her contracts for these events that she be allowed the use of the most private, best soundproofed office in the club. It was generally that of the club owner or manager, but they were usually so happy to have DJ Ti.B playing their club that they would give up their first born daughters to her. Of course, some of them unknowingly had, but that's another topic to contemplate on another night.

Right now Beca was just sitting and looking at her laptop. It wasn't her newest laptop, or the fastest one she owned. But it was always the one she brought with her to club openings, and she normally took comfort in its presence with her. Tonight it seemed like it was mocking her.

Her set list had been prepared for a couple days now, and there weren't any crazy, last minute changes she needed to make to it. So she was just looking it over. Her weapons, if you would, in the war against the potentially bored masses waiting for her to ascend into the booth. And they were ready.

They weren't what was causing her to struggle so hard to find that calm place she normally liked to go to before she spun. Sighing she shut the lid of her laptop, knowing that everything was ready to go. That also brought into her line of sight one of the reminders of her lack of calm. If anyone else saw it, they'd just see what appeared to be the remnants of a sticker which had been torn, messily, off the lid of her laptop. She always saw the sticker, whole and intact, staring up at her challengingly in soft, baby blue.

An ornate letter B.

Beca ran her hand over the faded remnants of the sticker on the lid, trying very hard to keep the memories that the torn bits of paper summoned in her from overwhelming her. Despite her best efforts, though, a few leaked through. Her mind drifted back to when she'd first arrived in LA. She had been unpacking all of her stuff with her dad's help. She'd found a mislabeled box of kitchen stuff in with what she'd assumed was her DJ equipment and had taken it to the kitchen. When she came back, her dad was pulling her laptop, this very laptop, out of one of the boxes.

She had frozen in her tracks at the sight of the Barden Bellas B emblazoned on the lid. She had thought she'd left that at Barden, on her desk in her dorm. She had done it on purpose. The Bellas had left her behind. Left her alone. So she had wanted to do the same. With a choked voice she said, "Dad… Where'd… Where'd that come from?"

"Oh hey. I, uh, I found it while I was doing a final sweep of your dorm. Just trying to make sure you hadn't forgotten anything." Her dad answered, having glanced up at her voice. Looking back down at the laptop he smiled and patted it once before moving over to set it on her desk. Resting the tips of his fingers on the closed lid he added, "And it's a good thing I did, too, huh? You'd have been devastated to not have a laptop here to work on your music. You have to go out and become the next DJ Jazzy Jeff or something, right?"

The sheer ludicrousness of his statement floored Beca for a second and she stood with her mouth hanging open, just trying to process what he'd said. Of course, hearing him say it, she realized that in an odd way he was right. She couldn't very well become a DJ without the centerpiece of her equipment. Instead of saying anything she'd walked over to him and given him a hug. He'd been shocked, naturally, as Beca hadn't initiated physical contact with him in years. But he'd gotten over it fast enough and hugged her back.

He hadn't asked what it was about, he'd just let her go when she loosened her grip and they had gone back to unpacking. After he left, though, she'd come back from the airport and torn a large piece of the sticker off. But then, after seeing it sitting there, a half-mangled B on the surface of her laptop, the fury and hatred she'd felt had changed. Looking at what was left of the Barden Bellas sticker she realized that it wasn't going to be a source of anger, it was going to be a source of motivation.

From then on every track she mixed, every mashup she created, she'd done it to spite the remnants of the sticker that had told her she wasn't good enough, that she wasn't Bella material. And when she played her first gig, that laptop had again been the centerpiece of her gear.

Naturally in the years since she'd gotten faster, more powerful computers. And when she'd started working at the label they had bought her the latest and greatest equipment. But Beca had always, always kept this old laptop around. It was the thing that drove her most. Showing those few pieces of torn paper still clinging to the lid all these years later that she was someone, that she was good enough.

Her phone buzzed on the table beside her, startling her out of her reverie of the past and bringing her back to where she was. That was her five minute warning. It was time to get into character.

Standing, Beca walked over to the polished, sturdy wooden case that stood on a nearby table. Lovingly she ran her hands over the fine grain of the material, long ago worn smooth by her delicate caresses. Slipping her hands down over the front she deftly slid the clasps open and carefully lifted the lid. The dim lights of the room reflected brightly off the highly polished, silvery metal mask sitting inside the case.

This was the major piece of her persona. As much as she wanted to succeed to spite the Bellas, she also was adamant about them not recognizing her, not being able to reach out to her. She'd given them their chance to be part of her life. They had thrown it back in her face. Well, in an effort to ensure that never happened, Beca had taken steps to cover her face. As she had started to become known, to get a reputation in the DJ scene, her stage persona had been born.

DJ Ti.B.

DJ Titanium Beca.

It was weird, the way it had come to her. She hadn't listened to the song in a year. The song that had started her down this path. But she was starting to make a name, people were starting to come to her for gigs instead of the other way around. And Beca knew she needed to cover up, to protect herself. And what was stronger than titanium?

It did serve the dual purpose, she had also realized, of being another means to motivate herself. Both armor and motivator, wrapped into one.

When she'd started out, naturally the mask had been a simple covering. Just an old Phantom of the Opera style mask she'd seen at one of those odd little curiosity stores and had been drawn to. But as her name became more well-known, as her fame and fortune had increased, so had her mask.

Carefully she reached down and lifted the polished piece of titanium from its resting place inside the specially made case and pressed it against her face. With an almost ritual-like slowness she reached behind and tied the cords that would bind it to her until the end of her set. As the cool metal, insulated by the cloth lining which made it tolerable to wear for hours on end, contacted her skin, she felt her full persona settle over her as well.

She was DJ Ti.B, and she had a job to do.

After the mask was secured, Beca walked swiftly back to her laptop and opened the case. The machine, long ago and many times upgraded with newer hardware, woke instantly and she fired up the voice synthesizer program she always used to mask her voice. Reaching to the side she picked up the small microphone she'd wear for the gig and fastened it to the throat of her outfit and spoke her usual test phrase, "This one's for you, Bellas."

The modulated voice came from her speakers at the perfect volume, and Beca smiled. She was ready. It was time.

* * *

Consciousness came to Chloe like a bomb exploding inside her head. Added on to the pounding pain of her headache was the sharp, stabbing pain of sunlight that had lanced into her eyes when they'd popped open. A reflex she was sorely regretting right at that moment. In fact, for the first time since they'd moved into this place months ago, the redhead was sorely regretting picking the bedroom with the big, clear windows.

Groaning in agony, Chloe managed to roll over and shield her now closed eyes from the bright light streaming in through the aforementioned windows. As she did she jostled her nightstand and heard a clinking sound. She prayed to any god that would listen that it was what she hoped it was going to be.

After carefully shielding her eyes, the redhead cracked one open just enough to spot the large glass of water. Risking the pain, and the sudden swooping sensation inside her head and her stomach, Chloe rolled back towards the nightstand and with immense relief saw several small pills laying beside the water on top of a note. It was a note she'd seen before in very familiar handwriting that read:

"Future Chloe,

Swallow these, drink all the water, go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Bree will probably have pancakes waiting when you wake up.

Love Past Chloe."

Following the first two instructions, Chloe quickly tossed back the pills and drank half the glass in one go. Taking a quick pause to catch her breath she said, "I love you, Past Chloe. You are the absolute best." Before polishing off the last of the glass and complying with the third instruction.

True to Past Chloe's prediction, a couple hours later when the light coming through her window wasn't nearly as direct as it had been, Present Chloe woke to the smell of blueberry pancakes. It was that smell that drew her out of the comfort of her blankets and encouraged her to make her way downstairs. Halfway down the stairs she heard talking and soft laughter coming from the kitchen and thought she was able to identify the two voices she heard.

Rounding the corner into the kitchen she found her guesses were right as Stacie sat on one of the stools at the kitchen island working her way through a short stack of blueberry pancakes. The sight of coffee and more pancakes cooking drew a delighted hum of approval from the redhead as she entered, drawing the attention of both Aubrey and Stacie, who chuckled.

"Wow, look at you. You're more ambulatory this morning than I'd have expected, given how much you drank last night." Stacie said, observing Chloe as she perched on a stool beside her. Aubrey, bless her heart, was already pouring Chloe a cup of delicious, life-sustaining coffee and adding Chloe's normal amount of cream and sugar. Chloe inhaled the delightful aroma and took a long, luxurious pull from the cup before she even considered responding to the leggy brunette.

"That's because Past Chloe is a saint…" The redhead responded cryptically before taking another sip. Stacie, looking confused turned to Aubrey. The blond had let out a bark of laughter at Chloe's answer before sliding two fresh, piping hot pancakes off the griddle and onto a plate for Chloe.

"I'm surprised you never met Past Chloe while you guys were at the Bellas House together at Barden." Aubrey said, pouring some more batter onto the griddle for pancakes for herself. As it pooled to the perfect size, the blond put the now empty bowl of batter into the sink and continued her explanation, "No matter how drunk this one gets, and I've seen her REALLY drunk mind you, she always has a tendency to leave herself some meds and a large glass of water by her bedside before she passes out. Sometimes there's even a note…"

"Seriously? That's some incredible foresight… I wish Past Stacie was that nice. But no, that bitch usually just hides my favorite pair of shoes or something." Stacie said, grumbling slightly before tucking back into her pancakes.

"If it makes you feel better, Past Aubrey doesn't do it either. I'm not sure if she even exists, honestly. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there's usually only Present Aubrey." Chloe said, finally having worked up to being to form complete, coherent sentences. Taking a few quick bites of her pancake she looked back and forth between the two for a moment before going on, "What were you guys talking about anyway? Before I came in… I heard you laughing from the stairs."

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just relating some stories to Bree about some of my coworkers-slash-classmates who were doing stupid things. She observed that students seem to be idiots no matter where they are in this country." Stacie said casually with a wave of her fork towards the blond. Aubrey, flipping the pancakes on the griddle just chuckled and nodded.

"I'm not wrong, either. The more I've been doing with the new Lodge over here, the more I realize that stupid is stupid, no matter what state you're in." Aubrey said before reaching for the coffee pot to refill everyone's cups. After she filled Chloe's cup the redhead poured in her own cream and sugar before giving it a quick stir.

"God, Bree. I love you, you know that?" Chloe said in rapture as she took another sip of her beverage. Of course, considering Aubrey heard the redhead say that multiple times a day, the blond just chuckled and went back to tending to her pancakes.

"Hey now, if I didn't know better Beale, I'd think you were trying to steal my girl." Stacie said, pointing her fork warningly at Chloe. The redhead, laughing, raised her hands in surrender as Stacie glared at her.

"Since when have I been 'your girl', Stace?" Aubrey asked, watching the interaction between her two best friends. If asked about it later, Aubrey would deny the slight swooping feeling she'd felt in her stomach at those words, passing it off as being hungry and a little hungover.

"Oh, you missed that conversation cuz you'd left Barden. I claimed you. You're mine now, Posen." Stacie said, turning her gaze to look at Aubrey with a possessive smile. Chloe wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but she could have sworn she saw Aubrey's eyes widen just slightly at Stacie's words. Of course, she only managed to watch Bree for a few seconds before laughter overcame her and drew the other girl's attention to her.

"Sorry Bree, I guess I forgot to tell you about that. I don't even remember how it came about, but one late night at the Bellas House that no doubt involved too much alcohol it happened, as I'm sure you're undoubtedly shocked to hear. Anyway, somewhere in the conversation Stacie ended up claiming you. I tried to fight her for you, but I suck at arm wrestling, you know that…" Chloe said when she finally finished giggling at the memory. Honestly she didn't know why she hadn't told the blond about it already, but it just hadn't come up.

"Well, ok then. I guess I'm Stacie's…" Aubrey said, having gotten control of her initial reaction and turning to back to retrieve her pancakes before they burned. She took the time while buttering them and putting on just the right amount of syrup to take stock of things. After she was done she looked up at Stacie and said, "So… Aside from pancakes, I'm thinking a lazy day at the house today. You wanna hang with us, Stace?"

Stacie, her mouth full of pancake at the time, just nodded to Aubrey's question and the trio went to work on the pancakes with determined effort. Occasional quiet chatter interrupted them, but for the most part, the three girls were more interested in putting some carbs back into themselves and drinking their way through the pot of coffee that Stacie had made. After a little clean-up, Chloe's contribution to breakfast, the three of them gathered in the living room and piled onto the couch. With their busy lives of late, neither Chloe nor Aubrey had had much of a chance to catch up on all the tv shows they regularly recorded, and Stacie's schedule was worse than theirs.

So that was how Chloe found herself spending a rather enjoyable Saturday afternoon and evening. Tucked into a corner of her couch, feet and legs draped over her two best friends, and watching silly singing shows, or amusing dance shows, and just once a cop drama before all three agreed that the day wasn't made for drama. If you were to ask Chloe, she felt that there was already far too much drama in her life.

Her thoughts occasionally drifted back to what had happened prior to the show the previous evening. She did her best to keep her mind on the present, and since her boss hadn't called to fire her that was a little easier than it might have been. The mystery of everything, however, still crept into her mind from time to time. But whenever she started to dwell on it either Aubrey or Stacie would notice.

And smack her in the face with a pillow.

By dinner time she was almost fed up with her two friends, but she had to admit that their plan was working. She only finally got a break from it all when Stacie and Aubrey ran to the store for something to make for dinner and she snuck off to take a shower. When she found herself singing Titanium under the almost scalding hot spray, however, she had to stop her mind from going back.

It was only then, standing under the spray that she realized that for the second time in her life she'd been in the presence of a very naked Beca Mitchell. Albeit with a worse view than before, but this time Chloe had been touching her.

The front door slamming open drew her back to the present and she called out that she was in the shower after hearing Aubrey screaming for her. She finished up quickly, drying off and throwing on some old Barden sweats she'd pulled out earlier. Walking into the kitchen she found the two girls unpacking the groceries and tried to get an idea of what was for dinner.

"Don't even think about it…" Aubrey said, raising an admonitory finger at her as Chloe started to reach for one of the packages. The blond smacked her hand away before grabbing the item she'd been reaching for herself and Chloe pouted a little. When Aubrey turned back to see if she snorted, "Hmph! Not gonna happen, Beale. Last time I let you cook in this kitchen you exploded three eggs all over the stovetop, remember?"

"Aubrey! That was an accident, you know it! I was trying to hard boil some eggs for your breakfast, and, well, I got distracted by that show I was watching and forgot about them…" Chloe whined, but Stacie was laughing now too. Turning an accusatory glare on the brunette, Chloe stuck out her tongue.

"I mean, I'm not gonna say you're a bad cook, Chlo'. Just… Maybe stick to making reservations instead of making actual food… There was a reason that you usually got skipped over for dinner assignments back at the Bellas House, and it wasn't because you were Captain." Stacie said, a sympathetic look on her face. She knew that the redhead meant well, but she really wasn't the greatest cook. Not that she minded, because with everything else that Chloe was, being a fantastic cook on top of it would have been unfair.

"You know the rules, Chloe. I, or in this case we, will cook. You're responsible for helping with cleanup." Aubrey said, taking the last of the items and sorting them into what was for tonight's food, and what went into the fridge. Finally ready, she shooed Chloe out of the kitchen and as the redhead settled onto the couch she heard Aubrey and Stacie starting to make dinner.

The redhead knew not to argue the point. She really wasn't the best cook, whereas Aubrey and Stacie were pretty damned good at it. She still thought she had the better end of the deal, since all she had to do was clean up. But then again, Aubrey thought she had the better end of the deal, since cooking for her was easy. All in all it was a fairly perfect arrangement.

It didn't take too long for the redhead to make her way back into the kitchen, however. As delicious smells started wafting out into the living room and tantalizing her on the couch Chloe eventually moved to her favorite spot while Bree was cooking. Perched on a stool at the island where the blond was hard at work. Sometimes Stacie was there too, sometimes not. When she was the three of them got on like they were all back at Barden, and neither the brunette nor the blond seemed to mind if she swiped a few veggies they were cutting up.

Before Chloe would have expected it the timer on the oven was dinging that it was ready and Bree was chivying her off to make the table. Then they all sat around their rather larger for the space it was in table and had another delightful meal. It was chicken something. Aubrey told her, but she was too busy trying to not to have a food orgasm when the blond said it, so Chloe had missed anything after the word chicken.

Dinner was followed by possibly the most succulent chocolate lava cake, courtesy of Stacie, and then the evening wrapped up with the trio snuggled up on the couch holding wine glasses and watching movies. As the final credits started to roll, Chloe finished the last of her glass of wine and said, "You know, today has been about the most perfect day someone can have when waking up with a hangover. I love you two, you guys know that right?"

"Of course we know, silly." Stacie said, untangling herself from the pile and gathering up the three empty glasses to take to the kitchen. When she walked back in she glanced at her watch and winced at the time. Looking back and forth between the pair who were now getting up off the couch, she added, "Hey, I didn't realize how late it was… And with the wine I don't really want to drive home. Mind if I crash on the couch?"

"Couch? Pshhh! You can sleep in my room, like we used to back at Barden during Bellas bonding events at Chloe and my apartment. Besides, I am yours after all, it's only your right…" Aubrey said teasingly. Chloe giggled, she blamed it on the wine, and just swatted the two on their asses as she walked past.

"No loud sex though, this ginger needs her beauty sleep." She called as she entered the hallway towards her room. She knew that Aubrey would be blushing, and Stacie no doubt winking suggestively at the comment. But she couldn't resist.

"No, she really doesn't, hot stuff." She heard Stacie holler back at her, causing her to smile and blush a little of her own. She was sure she was still blushing just a little as she closed the door to her bedroom and yawned. Looking around the room she saw evidence of her wanderings over the last couple years everywhere.

After graduating, finally, when the girls who had joined the Bellas in her original senior year graduated, Chloe had wandered around as though adrift. She'd taken up dozens of jobs from simple things like administrative assistant roles to even spending a month as a stripper. That had been a dare from Fat Amy, that she wouldn't even make it a month. She had, but only barely. Though she wouldn't deny that it had been an interesting experience. It helped that she'd always loved singing and dancing, and while the singing was mostly in her head, dancing was a thing that was encouraged. Discounting all that, her time working at Serenity Spa had almost been the longest gig she'd held down since graduation.

She really enjoyed the work, too, which was helpful. Making people healthier and happier through the power of touch was something that Chloe found to be amazingly rewarding. She had even told Aubrey a few days ago that she might see this job sticking. The blond had been thrilled for her and had asked her why this, out of all the things. Chloe couldn't explain it, but something about the spa had just felt right, felt like home to her.

Smiling at the thought of heading back to work on Monday, Chloe looked over her outfit in her mirror and determined that if she just took off the pants, it was perfectly adequate for bed. Once pantsless, the redhead climbed into her bed and checked to make sure she didn't have an alarm set because she wanted to sleep in a little on Sunday, she curled up and let her thoughts drift back to the night before. To having fun dancing with Aubrey and Stacie, to the amazing music, and to how glad she was to have her two best friends with her in LA.

Waking up on Sunday was just about the complete opposite from Chloe's experience on Saturday. She was warm, she was cozy, she felt well-rested, and best of all she wasn't hung over. A glance at her phone showed that it was just a little bit after nine in the morning, so not late by any means, but still about two hours later than she normally woke up. And she felt positively sinful lying in bed and relishing those extra couple hours.

Eventually, though, the smell of coffee drew her downstairs, and she was rewarded with a mug of the piping how brew curtesy of Stacie. Aubrey was busy eating a bowl of cereal, apparently no fancy breakfast this morning, but Chloe didn't mind. If you had blueberry pancakes every day for breakfast, the novelty would wear off.

All three girls sat and ate in relative silence, broken by the occasional crunch of cereal or slurp of coffee. The sun was streaming in through the window set above the sink, and life seemed fairly peaceful. Just about as nice a Sunday morning as Chloe could have imagined.

Which was why the sudden chirping of Stacie's cellphone probably sounded especially out of place.

Both Chloe and Aubrey eyed the brunette curiously as she, somewhat sheepishly, retrieved her phone and thumbed it on. Her expression took on a strange look as she read the text, her head tilting to the side as she seemed to have to think on the meaning. Aubrey spoke first, nudging Stacie with her foot as she asked, "Well, who is it?"

"Uh… It's, uh, it's Beca. She wants to meet up for lunch later." Stacie said, still looking down at the phone and seemingly deliberately not making eye contact with either girl. Chloe, having heard the former Bellas name froze in her seat as the memories of Friday before the club flooded her brain.

"Well, what are you gonna say? I mean, you said that she'd probably want to meet up for lunch, didn't you?" Aubrey asked quickly. No doubt, Chloe assumed, the blond was only trying to settle the situation as Aubrey certainly wasn't the one consumed with terrifying thoughts about her job, her future, and her life.

"I mean, yeah, the lunch part I expected. But, you know, I was thinking it wouldn't be until next weekend." Stacie said, finally glancing up at Aubrey then Chloe. Taking in the panicked expression Chloe was probably wearing, Stacie put on her most reassuring look, one that the redhead had seen often when she was freaking out about the Bellas back at Barden, and started typing out a reply as she said, "I'm sure it's nothing, though. We haven't really seen each other lately, she probably was just eager to catch up."

The response back from Beca was almost immediate, which Chloe was certain was a bad sign. But Stacie didn't spend much time reading it before locking her phone and putting it down. Draining the last of her coffee the brunette stood up and took her mostly empty bowl to the sink. The tension, finally too much for Chloe, broke when the redhead blurted out, "I should just quit now, shouldn't I? I mean, she's probably totes pissed and is gonna get me fired. I know it. Oh god… And I really liked that job too, damnit…"

"Hey, hey, calm down, Chlo." Stacie said, shutting off the water and turning to see Aubrey resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Drying her hands on a dish towel she walked over and gave the redhead a one-armed hug before adding, "I'm sure it's nothing, really. I told her I'd meet her in a couple hours, so I'm gonna head home and shower and change. I'll call you guys as soon as we're done, I'm sure it's no biggie…"

Awkward goodbyes were exchanged with Stacie as the brunette gathered her stuff and made her way to the door. Chloe's were awkward because, despite Stacie's reassurances, she was still sure she knew what the meeting was about. Aubrey was awkward, Chloe knew, because the blond was struggling with Stacie seeing Beca and talking about, well, them. All three of them knew the purpose of the meeting would be Stacie getting yelled at for keeping them a secret from the short, former Bella.

Stacie again expressed her confidence that she had reasoning that Beca would understand. But Chloe knew Aubrey, in spite of her own fierce, independent manner, was actually still rather upset about how things had gone down with Beca. Aubrey had blamed herself for a long time for everything with Beca, especially after Stacie had told them that the routine they had performed at Finals had been given to her by Beca before the brunette left Barden.

Aubrey was giving Stacie a hug at the door when Chloe felt the pocket of her PJs vibrating, followed almost immediately by her ringtone cutting into the relative silence of the room. Chloe fished it out as Aubrey and Stacie turned to look at her curiously only to almost drop it when she saw who was calling.

"Oh, em, aca-gee! It's work… This is it, I'm getting fired. They're going to fire me. Schnitzel!" Chloe said with obvious anger, hurt, and misery in her voice. She stared at the screen for a second, debated not answering it, before flicking the green accept icon and saying, "Hello?"

"Chloe, good you're awake. It's Mr. Vallencia. I need you to come in to the spa today. Can you be here by noon?" Mr. Vallencia's voice was exceedingly curt and his manner more abrupt than usual. Chloe couldn't help squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she assumed the absolutely worst. Before she even had a chance to say yes or no to coming in, he was already proceeding on, "Excellent. See you in a couple hours."

It took Chloe about ten seconds before she realized she was still holding the phone to her ear despite the line having gone dead. Stacie and Aubrey must have seen something on her face because the pair of them were looking at her rather worriedly as she slowly lowered her arm, her gaze falling to see a picture of Ricardo Vallencia scowling out from his profile picture at her. She felt the stinging behind her eyes before she even realized she was crying, and felt Aubrey and Stacie's arms around her a moment later.

"Oh god, Chlo… What was it? Who was it? What's the matter?" Aubrey asked softly, her arm rubbing up and down on Chloe's back as the redhead sniffled, trying to stop the tears. It seemed, however, that the universe had it out for her today. Between Stacie's lunch meeting, where the brunette was going to get in trouble for hiding the Bellas presence in LA, and her getting called in so abruptly to work Chloe just knew today was going to be her worst day ever. Well, her worst day since Semis of Stacie and Beca's freshmen year at Barden, at any rate.

"I… It's… He's…" Chloe spluttered disjointedly. She wasn't even sure what she was trying to say, but apparently the other two understood and simply hugged her harder. Internally Chloe was feeling a rush of emotions, the two most powerful were despair and anger. The former, she felt, was natural, but it was the rising tide of the later that surprised her a little bit.

"Don't you worry, Chlo'. I'm sure there's another explanation. And if there isn't, I'll slap Beca silly when I see her later, I promise" Stacie said fiercely after the long, three-way hug concluded. The redhead couldn't help but smile at the determination she saw in Stacie's eyes as the taller brunette looked down at her protectively. Aubrey had apparently had similar thoughts to Stacie's if her next words were any indication.

"I know that what we did… What _I_ did back then was wrong. But if that little hobbit got you fired, so help me by my beloved aca-gods, I will show her that she can be on the receiving end of much worse from me!" The blond's words were like steel layered over cold iron as she spoke, and Chloe almost reached out to tell her that it wasn't Beca's fault. I mean, it probably was the reason she got fired, or was going to be fired, but something in the redhead wanted to fight against Aubrey and protect Beca. It took Chloe a few seconds to wrap her head around that one, for sure.

"It's… It'll be ok, guys. I, umm… I need to get showered and stuff, get ready to go. And so do you, Stace. Seriously, though, keep us posted about your brunch and I'll let you know what reason he gives me…" Chloe said, her mind veering away from saying the words out loud, as though that would make them real.

After another quick group hug Stacie turned to leave, Aubrey walking her out as Chloe made her way to her bedroom. Once behind the closed door she sank down on her bed and looked at one of the pictures sitting on her dresser not far away. It had been taken a week or so earlier at work on a slow day when herself and a few of the others were goofing around in the employees' lounge. As she saw herself and the others, that anger came rising back up in her again bringing with it determination to fight for her job.

What happened in the past was past, and if Beca was still this pissed about it then Chloe wasn't going to be the one to bear the brunt of it. She loved her job, and she was willing to fight to keep it. Swiping the remaining tears from her cheeks she stood up and grabbed her towels before walking into the bathroom with resolve in her eyes.

* * *

Stacie got to the café a little earlier than Beca had told her, but the brunette needed a little time to calm down. She knew that Beca was pissed at the rest of the Bellas still, but if she actually got Chloe fired, then the short DJ would learn something that more than a few guys at Barden University learned while she was there.

Don't fuck with Stacie Conrad.

Checking her phone she sent out a quick group text to Bree and Chloe.

 **Stacie (11:45 AM):** Got here early, no sign of the short one. Will keep you posted… How you holding up, Chlo?

Stacie set her phone down and started glancing at the menu. She hadn't spent long looking, though, before a waiter came over and asked if she needed any coffee. She gratefully accepted the proffered coffee and even had him fill a cup for Beca. She knew from experience that pretty much the only thing that kept the shorter girl going at times was caffeine and spite. As the guy was filling their cups she heard her phone vibrate against the table a couple times and glanced down to see who had said what.

 **Bree (11:46 AM):** Make sure to smack her for me when you see her. Chloe doesn't deserve this…

 **Red (11:47 AM):** Don't do that, Stace… And I'm, well, not good, but I'm not gonna go down without a fight, that's for sure. Anyway, just got into the parking lot, need to head in. Will text you guys later with an update.

 **Stacie (11:49 AM):** I will if she's earned it, that's for sure, Bree. And you go girl! Tell that douche he's not getting rid of you that easily. Ooooh, I think I see her, gotta go.

Tucking her phone into her purse quickly, Stacie saw a familiarly slouched figure stroll into the entrance of the café. Beca had gone full celebrity today, wearing one of her favorite hooded sweatshirts that had a nice, deep cowl and complimenting it with a pair of oversized sunglasses. Having spotted Stacie already, the shorter girl gave a little half-wave and started walking over, allowing the leggy brunette to see that she hadn't forgone her trademarked dark skinny jeans and boots.

Stacie smiled at Beca as the shorter girl slid into the seat opposite her and reached desperately for the coffee cup before drawing a long swallow. With an enormous sigh of relief and pleasure, Beca relaxed into the booth and took off her sunglasses. Stacie was trying to gauge the other girl's state by her facial expression, but Beca had become even more guarded and reserved during her time in LA than she had been back when the leggy brunette knew her as a Barden Bella.

Stacie opened her mouth to speak, to venture out onto the fragile ice that was going to be the conversation of the day, but Beca's eyes snapped up to hers and silenced her with a look. It was plainly obvious that Beca was waiting for something, and that something appeared in the form of their waiter who smiled down at them and asked if they were ready to order. Seeing as how Beca had just sat down, Stacie told him they needed another few minutes and so he walked off. The taller brunette wondered how long she would have to wait for the brunette to bring up the point of the meeting now that the waiter had left. Not long as it turned out…

"So… You gonna tell me why the fuck I didn't know that Chloe, and probably Aubrey, are in LA right now?" Beca asked, her tone icy and her look as close to furious as Stacie had ever seen. In fact, the doctor to be found herself more than a little intimidated by the shorter girl. She had known after their phone conversation that Beca was pissed off. But it only now dawned on her that she'd never really _seen_ Beca pissed off before. Not really pissed off, not like this. It was a bit scary.

And kind of sexy.

"Uhh…" Stacie stammered, struggling to come up with words as her brain processed everything she was seeing and feeling. After a few seconds, however, it kicked into gear and she closed her mouth and took a deep breath. Looking straight into the other girl's dark, stormy blue eyes, Stacie went on a bit more coherently, "Well, Aubrey is opening a lodge of some sort. A retreat, or something, where companies send their employees for leadership and team building training. Chloe, well, I think you know what she has been doing…"

Beca's expression didn't change at the slight lilt of humor that Stacie had tried to inject into the conversation. The brunette just blinked at her for a solid ten seconds. Ten seconds in which Stacie wondered if it was possible for her to be able to melt into her bench and not have to sit through the rest of this conversation.

"That's a bullshit answer, Stace. You know goddamn well what I meant. What's she… Why are they here? And more to the point, why didn't you fucking tell me earlier? I thought you were my friend." Beca's voice was still as cold and quiet as an arctic tundra. And that was probably what scared Stacie the most about the situation.

* * *

 **Stacie (11:49 AM):** I will if she's earned it, that's for sure, Bree. And you go girl! Tell that douche he's not getting rid of you that easily. Ooooh, I think I see her, gotta go.

The text from her friend put a smile on Chloe's face as she got out of her car and locked the doors. Standing in the parking lot of Serenity Spa the redhead felt a certain amount of gravity settle in on her after what she'd said to Stacie and Aubrey in their text conversation. She was going to fight for her job. Because she'd earned it. Because she was great at it. And more importantly, because she loved it here.

Glaring at the employee door as though she could blow it open like some sort of superhero in a Marvel movie with the sheer force of her mind, Chloe strode determinedly across the lot. As she walked through the employee's entrance she made her way to the break room, expecting at any moment to see Mr. Vallencia jump out and fire her on the spot. Instead she had a rather uneventful walk to the break room.

When she got in she saw a couple girls sitting on one of the couches that she knew by name, but hadn't ever really interacted with. She'd never really worked weekends, so while she knew the names of the weekend girls, she wasn't that familiar with them. One of the pair, Elizabeth she was fairly sure, waved cheerfully at Chloe when she walked through the doors. Her gaze immediately skipped over the petite blond girl and went to the doors to Mr. Vallencia's office. It was closed, but she could vaguely see through the frosted glass that someone was moving inside.

Deciding to wait, to put off the expected encounter just a little bit longer, Chloe made her way to the lockers and found her own. Opening it up, she saw her stuff that she'd brought in and left there. Mostly just work related stuff, but there were a few things she'd want to take home with her.

The most important was a picture that she'd taken shortly after getting to LA with Bree and Stacie on the Santa Monica Pier. All three of them were making goofy faces, and it cheered Chloe up every time she saw it, this time included. Smiling at the image, and at the memory of the day that the three of them had spent cruising around Santa Monica and being touristy, Chloe reached out and touched the glossy picture before moving her hand to rest on her uniform. The soft shirt was folded, as it always was, and waiting for her to don it and step out to represent the family that was Serenity Spa. Waiting for a day that Chloe feared wouldn't come again.

"Beale!" The shout from behind her caused her to jump, so lost was she in memories that she hadn't heard the door to Mr. Vallencia's office open. But the booming voice of the big man himself she definitely heard. Turning to face him he waved for her to come over as he said, "You're here. Come on in, I want to talk with you."

He turned and headed back into his office without waiting for a reply, confident that the redhead would follow him. Chloe's crystal clear, blue-eyed gaze fell on Elizabeth and her friend, both of whom had sympathetic expressions on their faces. It only helped to harden Chloe's resolve, however, and gave the redhead the push she needed to close her locker, turn to face the open office, and stride towards it with her head upright and uncompromising.

"Shut the door." The big man said gruffly as she entered. A light tug on the door pulled it closed, and Chloe was moving towards one of the chairs without much more than a pause, her eyes locked on the owner of the spa. He was busy looking over some paperwork on his desk and seemed only dimly aware of her. She intended to make him very aware of her. Still without looking up he started to speak, "Chloe, you've been with us here for a couple months now…

"Mr. Vallencia, before you continue, I have something to say. I love working here. I love the staff, I love the customers. This is possibly my favorite job anywhere, and if you remember my resume, I've had more than a few jobs in my day. I just… I don't want to leave." Chloe said, the last part coming out much more like a plea than the assertive insistence she had started out with. She knew she was probably giving him her patented "puppy dog" look that Aubrey considered cheating whenever she used it in arguments with the blond.

"Oh. Well, I hope you aren't leaving… Oh, did you think I was going to…?" Mr. Vallencia started to chuckle for a moment before giving a couple full belly laughs. Chloe felt an immediate sense of relief flooding through her as the reason for his laughing. After a moment Mr. Vallencia wiped his cheeks and caught his breath enough to speak he said, "Chloe, Chloe… No, no. I'm not firing you. You're like a daughter to me."

Chloe was shocked, to say the least. She had come in today fully expecting to get fired because of… Because of a misunderstanding that hurt the redhead even to this day. To have Mr. Vallencia saying she was wrong, she was completely and totally wrong, was a shock to say the least. Letting out what was possibly the biggest sigh in her life she said, her voice weak from the emotions flowing through her, "Oh thank god. You sounded so angry on the phone earlier, and when I came in well… And, thank you Mr. Vallencia, that means a lot to me."

"Ricardo, Chloe. Call me Ricardo. Now, please I just wanted to thank you for coming in on such short notice. Emily, she called in sick this morning and she was booked all day long. I feared so bad to have to call and cancel all those appointments." Mr. Vallencia, Ricardo, said jovially as he pretended to scold her with one hand. Chloe, now feeling much better about the world just smiled at him and nodded, acquiescing to the request. After seeing her nod, Ricardo pointed to the phone and said, "As for that, well, that was my realtor. He gets me so worked up… But that's not your problem. Again, I just wanted to thank you for coming in on such short notice. You should get ready, too, your first appointment should be here soon."

"Well, it's my pleasure, Ricardo. As I said, I love working here, I'm happy to help out." Chloe said, standing up and smiling at the big man behind his desk. As he turned to go, however, he snapped his fingers as though he'd remembered something he had forgotten and reached out to grab a small tip envelop from under some papers on his desk.

"I almost forgot. Cindy, she left this for you. From Beca on Friday, I guess. She said she didn't see you leaving, so she gave it to me for you. It seems my little Beca liked you too, what did you think?" Ricardo asked, holding out the envelope to her. Chloe, completely floored by this sudden switch to what she'd expected the conversation to be, just looked at it until he shook it a few times at her.

"Oh, uh, thanks… Yeah, I, ummm, I had plans that night and had to dash out right after. And Beca… She was… She…" Chloe said, her words trailing off at the end as she tried to come up with words to describe what happened without saying what actually happened. The normally overly talkative redhead was, for one of the few times in her life, at a loss for words. Thankfully Ricardo seemed to take it in stride as he too stood up and started to talk.

"Of course, young girl like you, of course you have plans on a Friday night. I hope you talked to her, my little Beca, she is so smart, so funny. Do you like her? Did you get to know her?" Ricardo asked, as though he was her real father prying into her life like her dad did all the time. She smiled at the similarities, but winced internally at the conversation. She had to get out of it before she got herself in trouble.

"Oh. Uh, yeah… We… Well, I did get to know her." Chloe said, though she managed to avoid adding the word once to the end of the sentence only with great difficulty. Nodding towards the break room she spoke quickly, before he could ask more questions, "I should go get ready, you know?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. Before you go, I must ask… Did she say anything about a vacation?" Ricardo asked, his words catching her just as she got to the door. She froze with her hand gripping the handle as memories of the massage drifted into her thoughts. She must have shaken her head, however, because the big man went on, "I just ask because, well, her assistant called to cancel her appointment for this week. And the only times I know that she has canceled was because she was out of town… No worries. It's not important. You go get ready. I need to call my realtor back and yell some more."

Chloe breathed a huge sigh of relief, again, as she stepped out into the breakroom and closed the door behind her. She wasn't fired.

She wasn't fired!

That thought propelled her across the room with delight. That and the fact that she'd gotten out of Ricardo's office without telling him what had happened as, obviously, Beca hadn't spilled the beans about it either. As she got to her locker she opened the envelope and gasped as she saw the two, crisp hundred dollar bills inside. Seeing her phone, the light blinking indicating a message she thumbed it on and saw a message from Bree to the group chat.

Realizing that Stacie was, quite possibly, giving Beca an enormous amount of hell for how she'd treated Chloe, the redhead quickly read Bree's message saying that the "midget probably deserved it" before typing out a message of her own.

 **Chloe (12:05 AM):** Abort mission! Abort I say! I'm not fired. They just… Someone called in sick. And Beca did… Well, nevermind, abort mission! I'll explain later, I have to get ready for clients.

* * *

The awkward silence that had settled around the table after Beca's icy words seemed to last forever. It didn't help that the waiter showed up, in traditional waiter style, and started asking questions about what the pair wanted to eat. With what Stacie could only assume pure professional skill, the guy plowed through a fairly rehearsed speech about the specials before asking what they each wanted. Stacie ordered a sandwich of some sort, she wasn't even really sure after the words awkwardly left her mouth what she'd ordered. Beca ordered a salad, something that shocked the brunette, Beca rarely ate salads.

As the waiter wrote it all down Stacie figured that maybe the shorter girl was planning on storming out and didn't want to waste a good meal. That only made her feel even more awkward. And awkwardness wasn't really something that Stacie felt that often. After he finally left, the taller girl avoided looking at Beca for a few moments, trying to settle her thoughts. The shorter girl's voice brought Stacie's eyes to her, however, as Beca said, "Well? You going to tell me why my one friend betrayed me like that?"

"How about this, Beca? I did it for that thing you value so fucking much. Loyalty!" Stacie said, her own words fierce and angry at the tone that the other girl was taking. She was a little surprised, honestly, at her reaction. Something in her had just snapped when Beca accused her of that. So she fired back with her ultimate weapon, choosing to go straight for the big guns instead of dancing around the situation. The shorter girl seemed shocked, even sitting back as her eyes popped wide open. Stacie took advantage of the momentary upper hand and leaned forward to continue, "Yeah, I'm your friend. You're mine too. One of my best friends. But you know who else I'm best friends with? The Barden Bellas. They were my sisters for four years, Beca. For four years after _you_ abandoned _us_!"

"I didn't… You guys… Aubrey kicked me out, and you guys didn't say anything!" Beca said, her own face flashing between shocked and confused before settling on angry as she finished. Stacie watched them play over the short girl's expression and felt a little bad about jumping down her throat. Of course, Beca deserved it for immediately jumping down Stacie's. And especially if she got Chloe fired.

"Yeah, we didn't. But we apologized for that. Or we tried to. But you had already left, Beca. You had already left Barden, left us. I'm just glad that you left me something, left me that thumb drive…" Stacie said, calming down and smiling at the girl, hoping to remind her that they were, in fact, friends. Beca seemed to be calming down a little bit herself, which was a good sign as far as Stacie was concerned, but she still looked very upset. As she was about to go on she heard a quiet pinging noise over the sound of the café and knew it was her phone's text message alert. Reaching inside she snagged the device and thumbed it on to see the message preview. All she had to see was Chloe saying abort to know it was time to change tactic. Locking the device again she tucked it back into her purse and said, "You did leave me that drive, left us the drive, Beca. And you know how much it helped. I don't know that I ever really thanked you for that…"

The short brunette, never really one to bask in fame or easily accept a compliment looked awkward as she tried to wave it off and take a sip of her coffee at the same time. She ended up doing both badly, but managed to avoid spilling the coffee at least, for which Stacie had to give her credit. After a moment Beca finally said, "I didn't… I knew you guys wouldn't win with her sets. They were tired and old… And, I guess, maybe a part of me felt bad about leaving. But that still didn't give her the right to–"

"No, no it absolutely didn't." Stacie cut Beca off before the brunette could launch into a rant about Aubrey. Although, Stacie had to admit, this was one of the few times that the brunette seemed even willing to talk a little about back then. She normally avoided the subject like a plague. Deciding that she maybe could gently test some boundaries she went on, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you they were in town. And I promise, if it's something you want, I'll keep them away from you as much as I can. But, Beca, they _are_ my friends. I care about them as much as I care about you."

She almost mentioned that she was thinking she might care about one of them, at least, a bit more than Beca. But she wasn't sure if the short brunette was ready to deal with that. So instead she said her piece, simply and with as much true emotion in it as she could muster.

Before the brunette could respond, though it looked like Beca was giving some serious thought at least to what she had said, the waiter came back with their food. Stacie, having gone through some emotional ups and downs already today, was famished. And it turned out that her autopilot ordering hadn't failed her as she was presented with a delicious looking tuna melt complete with crispy bacon and some amazing looking curly fries.

The table remained quiet for a long while as the two girls ate, Stacie digging into her food ravenously while Beca picked and poked at her chicken Caesar salad. Stacie didn't say anything, she knew that Beca needed time to process things. She'd learned, both at Barden and here in LA, that the shorter girl had a highly active mind behind her quiet mouth, and she frequently needed to take some time to mull things over. Especially big, complicated things like this. Eventually, she knew, Beca would say something.

But the shorter brunette was silent the entire time that Stacie was eating. Beca had eaten maybe a quarter of her food then spent the rest of the time basically just pushing it around trying to find any croutons she might have missed. When the waiter came by about the time that Stacie was taking her last bite to drop the check off she expected Beca to say something, but Beca instead just reached to grab the bill. She gave it a cursory glance over before grabbing a couple bills from her wallet and slipping them inside. Laying the bill down on the table's edge she looked at Stacie, an unreadable expression on her face, and said, "I'll… Think about it. Thanks for lunch, Stace, but I… I've got to run."

The taller girl barely had time to raise her hand and call out for Beca to wait before the shorter girl was out of the booth and heading towards the exit. Stacie was honestly surprised, given how short Beca's legs were, that the other girl made such an expeditious exit. Instead of pursuing, which she knew would be a mistake, Stacie simply leaned back and let her head drop down. She was afraid she might have pushed too hard, but Beca had to know that the Bellas were important to her, as important as the little DJ herself was, and Stacie was willing to fight for both.

* * *

As soon as she was out the door, Beca was pulling her phone from her pocket. A couple taps later and it was in the process of connecting to her assistant Laura even as she was hailing a cab. She'd driven herself down here, but where she was going she didn't want to leave her car sitting for days.

"Hey deejay, what's shaking? How was your lunch?" Her assistant's voice was as cheerful as ever as she picked up the line. Beca was fairly sure that nothing ever dented Laura's optimistic attitude. If she gave it a moment's thought she'd realize that it was a lot like someone else she knew, someone she was in the process of avoiding, but Beca never really was one for deep emotional awareness.

"It went… I, um, I need you to come down and get my car. I left it at the garage near Beth's Café." Beca said as a cab pulled up. Opening the door she slid into the backseat and got her seatbelt on. As she kind of expected, the news of her car needing a ride shocked Laura, but didn't seem to affect her cheeriness.

"Ooooh, taking just the one car home? And you said you weren't into Stacie that way… I'm guessing that means don't bug with work stuff for the rest of the day, yeah?" Laura said teasingly. Honestly Beca wasn't sure why she put up with this from her assistant. I mean, yeah it was fun sometimes, but damn it she was the girl's boss. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down before answering, Beca counted down from ten in her head.

"LAX." She said to the driver, who was looking at her curiously. Feeling the car starting to move she turned her attention back to the phone and replied, "Actually, no. I need you to clear my schedule for the next two weeks. I've gotta get out of town for a bit. Book me a ticket to Kauai. First class."


	5. Sun, Sadness, and Surprises

**A/N:** Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead. I have, however, been quite busy and distracted. Combine that with other life stuff going on and writing fic just hasn't been a priority for me of late. I'm slowly chipping away at things, and I hope people enjoy this. I don't know when more of anything can be expected, but don't worry, Zap pesters me nearly everyday to write more. As an aside, I really like the hippo part, you'll know it when you see it.

 **Zap's Note:** Any mistakes I let slip by are because Smeg and I got into one of our many debates. No clue when anything more will come, though progress is being made on something else. Slowly, but enough to make me think we MAY get it out before the end of the year. If we don't end up in a big fight.

* * *

 **Sun, Sadness, and Surprises**

The gradual change in the temperature of her feet was what finally drew Beca's attention away from her laptop screen. Looking up the short brunette noticed the immediate culprit as she saw both of her feet resting on the edge of the lounge chair completely exposed to the glaring midday sun. Frowning at how well-lit her otherwise pale feet were for a moment, Beca straightened slightly and reached behind her to lift the sunshade built into the chair until her exposed peripherals were once again immersed in shade.

Smiling at her handiwork, Beca bent back towards her laptop even as she reached out towards the side to grab her drink. When the cup that had until so recently contained a fruity, tropical cocktail was brought to her face, however, the straw produced nothing but watered down alcohol and another frown. Flagging down a waitress, Beca gestured to her cup and once again thanked her assistant for booking her in what she'd thought was an overly excessive hotel. But being able to get a new drink without actually speaking to anyone or have to remove her headphones made it all worth it.

Her head was already bowed down, her full attention back on the program running on her laptop when the waitress came back and discretely left her fruity adult beverage sitting on the small table beside her lounge chair. Beca didn't even notice the return, though a few moments later when she automatically reached out for a drink and found it present, perfectly chilled, and with a sufficient level of alcohol to keep her creative juices flowing she knew it would no doubt appear on her bill. She wasn't too concerned about that, though. Money was thankfully something that Beca would no longer need to really worry about, another of the perks of being a world famous recording artist and producer.

Besides, she also knew that she'd probably be able to bill the entire trip to the label. After all, she had spent nearly every day here working. Well, ok that wasn't entirely true. The first day she'd just been a complete vegetable, her mind totally overloaded from everything that had happened. The second and third days she'd come out of her torpor enough to move down to the pool and the beach, respectively. By the fourth day, however, she realized that she'd never actually taken a vacation in her life and had no fucking clue what to do on one… So she had called Laura on her cell and had them overnight her laptop to her.

She hadn't really cared which one at the time, she had like three laptops she swapped back and forth between, and she was that desperate for something to do it hadn't occurred to her which one Laura would probably send. Seeing the torn, tattered remnants of the Barden Bellas "B" had basically made her first day with the laptop completely useless. She had started drinking at the VIP bar in the hotel and hadn't stopped until they basically carried her up to her room…

That reminded her, she needed to make sure and leave a huuuuuge tip for everyone at the resort. They had definitely gone above and beyond in every aspect of service imaginable since she'd shown up nearly two weeks ago.

Regardless, every day _since_ then she'd worked for at least 12 hours. So she figured that just calling the whole thing a "work trip" was actually fairly accurate. With her thoughts drifting over the last several days Beca flicked out of the program she was using to do some chord blending and glanced over the list of songs she'd saved. Picking one at random that she considered more or less finished she double-clicked it and listened for a couple minutes, her head bobbing along with the beat. To her very great surprise, considering how the trip had started, Beca found that it was quite good. Just as she was switching back to her mixing program, a shadow falling on the ground beside her chair drew her attention as a voice penetrated the noise dampened bubble her headphones had had her surrounded in.

"Whatcha listening to, baby?" The voice asked. Beca turned her head slowly, a frown growing on her face as she noticed a very masculine, bare foot standing at the end of the aforementioned shadow. Her gaze continued upwards more out of reflex than any actual desire to engage the guy standing beside her chair.

"That isn't my name." She said quietly once her eyes fell on the grinning, suntanned face of the guy who'd interrupted her. His grin slipped a fraction, though, at the authority laced into the soft tone. A tone she'd picked up after working in clubs and used very effectively at keeping back idiots who just wanted to score with the DJ.

"Oh, well then, why don't you tell me what it is, so I don't make that mistake again?" The guy asked while his, for lack of a better term, douchebag grin slid back into full effect. Beca couldn't help but grimace at the action. Her gaze turned back towards the laptop on her lap, and as it did she noticed a group of similarly douchy looking guys across the pool from her with several scantily clad girls seemingly hanging on their every word.

"Yeah, no. That's not gonna happen. Run along now." Beca said as she reached up to adjust the headphone cups over her ears before focusing her attention on the track she'd been working on. Figuring the interruption would be over, Beca started looking over her work, the notes playing in her head without her having to even turn the music on yet. Because of that she was able to more or less clearly hear douche-bro's response.

"Aw, come on now, sexy… I've seen you over here the last few days, just begging for some guy to come over and sweep you out into the light and show you a good time. Trust me, baby, I'm the guy for that." The guy said in a slick, oily voice that made Beca's spine crawl. She was sure, too, that as much as this guy was completely creeping her out, that some girls no doubt fell for a variation of just that line. She was content, though, to merely ignore him and hope he'd leave, bobbing her head slightly to the music playing in her head. Until he sat down and put a hand on her knee.

"Get your hand off me." She said, her voice an icy growl that wiped the smarmy look right off his face. It did not, sadly, cause him to move his hand, however. Raising her eyebrow at the offending appendage she looked back up at him and said, "Any time now would be great, bro. I won't tell you again."

"Alright, alright. I don't want no trouble, baby." The guy said, slowly taking his hand off Beca's knee and looking around the pool area at the various hotel staff who had seemed to have sensed something was off and started moving in their direction. With a nervous gulp he tried to put on a bit of his old swagger as he said, "You can come on over, though, whenever you're ready to have a good time. I guarantee that, babe."

"Yeah, that still isn't my name, and I don't think you could even figure out how to show a raver on E a good time, so run along now." Beca said, shooing him away with one last gesture of her hand before turning her attention back to her laptop. This time she actually did fire up the track she'd been working on, listening to it for a minute to get the feel of it back. As she listened she was able to notice the idiot's shadow move away, and after a moment a second shadow appeared from the other side. She looked up to see the manager of the pool bar, the de facto leader of the hotel staff for the pool area, standing over her looking a little worried. They might not know exactly who she is, but when her record label calls up, books the most expensive suite in the hotel and basically says to give this person literally everything they want, the staff tends to get the picture.

"I'm so sorry, miss. Was he bothering you?" The manager asked, seeming as though he was afraid of the answer. Beca, who had paused her music when she noticed the manager's shadow, moved the cups off her ears so as not to be completely rude. A glance across the pool deck showed the idiot who had approached her back with his bros, seemingly being ribbed for failing to pick her up.

"Yes, he was." Beca said rather succinctly. But before the manager could react she held up her hand and shook her head. Rolling her eyes at the situation she then clarified her words and added, "He was bothering me, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Don't worry about it."

"Oh my. Well, we're so sorry miss. If you'd like, I can call down to the concierge desk and arrange a massage or something for you, on the house naturally, and with our apology." The manager said again, looking relieved, but still concerned that she might make a big deal out of it. Beca immediately started shaking her head. She didn't need a massage, especially not here. Hell, a massage was, really, what had driven her here and she didn't want to think about that either.

"No, no. It's ok, really. Don't worry anymore about it, please." Beca said, reassuringly. While her time at Barden may have set people's impression of her as an isolated loner, well, ok she really was, but a few years in the DJ and music business had at least knocked the sharper edges off and made it so that she could pass for an almost real human being when she had to. The manager, after a few more placations, finally moved away and left Beca to her own devices.

Which was how she liked it anyway.

Taking a deep breath, she refocused her attention once more on her laptop… And found that she'd lost whatever inspiration she'd had going from before. Grumbling about it didn't help, and neither did spending another thirty minutes trying to get back into the groove. She'd well and truly lost the rhythm she'd had.

Which was all well and good, cuz the sun had once more started to creep into her bubble of shade and the "party" across the pool from her was getting noisy. Carefully she unhooked her headphones from her laptop and stowed them both into the bag, branded with the logo and name of the hotel, she'd found her in room when she'd arrived and slowly got to her feet. As she did she noticed a few things.

First off, she was fucking sore from sitting in nearly the same spot for the last several hours. Second off she was hot as hell. It had to be at least 85 outside, and Beca hadn't really noticed it when she'd been engrossed in her work. Now that she wasn't, though, she grimaced at the sweaty, sticky feeling she had.

Turning her sunglass-covered head towards the pool she weighed the risks against the rewards of going for a quick dip before heading down to her room. On the plus side was that the water was delightfully cool and refreshing. She knew this from previous trips into said water on other days. The main drawback was that people in the pool tended to try and talk to her while she was in the pool. It was harder to hide behind her music when she didn't have her headphones on.

Thankfully a quick scan of the pool showed very few people in it near where her chair was located. Most everyone else was either relaxing on their chairs, hanging out with the party of douches across the pool from her, or at the swim-up bar trying to drink their way through the hotel's supply of alcohol.

Beca deemed it safe enough to take a quick dip, just enough to cool off, before she headed down. It was a fairly easy matter to undo the light wrap she had donned over her swimsuit and kick off the flip-flops she'd stepped into immediately after standing and realizing that the pool deck was scorching hot. As the wrap hit her chair, Beca's only thought was to get into the pool before people started staring.

While she may have been exceedingly comfortable being the center of attention behind a DJ deck with her mask on, standing on the deck of a hotel pool, even as exclusive a hotel as this one was, in the outfit she'd had to buy when she arrived here on the island was definitely far, far outside her comfort zone. The sunlight kissed over her pale, delicate skin as she hurried towards the edge of the pool, and seemed to highlight and enhance the soft baby blue color of the bikini she was wearing.

Beca, normally not a bikini kind of girl, hadn't been able to find a decent one-piece suit when she'd arrived on Kauai wearing literally just the clothes on her back. Ok, she'd found a couple, but she'd grown up enough from her Barden days to realize that some suits were just ugly. And the few one-piece suits she'd found were just that ugly. So she'd settled on a bikini after a bit of internal deliberation, but one that she'd hoped would cover her as much as could be managed with four triangles of cloth attached by string.

It hadn't even occurred to her until she'd gotten checked into her room and was changing to go down to the pool on her second day on the island that the color of the suit she'd picked very closely resembled another vivid shade of light blue she'd seen far more recently than she'd have expected a few weeks earlier. But by that point in time pure stubbornness prevented her from exchanging it or even getting a second suit option.

A few quick steps, both to hurry herself into the water and because the pool deck was damned hot, allowed Beca to step into the refreshingly cool water and let out a sigh of relief. She'd never been a big swimmer, but slipping into cool water on a hot day was always a joy. Slowly she waded into the shallow water until it was up over her chest and let her eyes close in relief. Her quiet, peaceful moment was disrupted mere seconds later by a splash from nearby that snapped her eyes open.

Apparently some of the party goers had decided to jump into the pool, because drunk people. Letting out another sigh, annoyed this time, Beca dipped down under the water to get her hair wet before standing and moving towards the edge of the pool. As she moved up the steps she was completely oblivious to the looks she got from people, especially guys but a few girls too, as the water sluiced off her body.

Now that she had gotten her dip in, Beca made her way back to her stuff and grabbed one of the towels to dry herself off briefly. She didn't bother drying off completely, that was the point of the wrap, and besides she wanted a shower, but she wanted to be dry enough that she wouldn't drip all the way back to her room. Leaning towards the pool she wrung the water out of her hair and then grabbed her wrap and quickly covered herself up again. Looking around her area she made sure she had everything she'd brought down, though she was sure that the pool attendants would grab anything she missed, and seeing that she hadn't missed anything, she stepped into her flip flops and headed towards the bar to sign her tab.

After leaving a generous tip, she smiled at the bartender in thanks and nodded at the waitress who had brought her drinks to her and then made her way towards the elevator to go down to her room. Thankfully the suite she was in was near the top of the tower she was staying in and thus the pool, another perk of the job, so the trip was fast. Getting out on her floor, Beca quickly let herself into her room and let out a sigh of relief.

Even after nearly two weeks in the resort Beca still felt a surge of relief when she was able to get into her room and away from the, if truth be told, very courteous staff who had obviously noticed her desire to be by herself whenever possible. Still, being around people generally irritated her, and after the encounter with the douche-bro up at the pool, Beca was in need of some private time. And a shower.

And maybe some extra private time…

Shaking her head, the brunette rolled her eyes at her own thoughts and moved to set her bag onto the bed. Grabbing her phone from inside it she thought about the fact that today had been the first time she'd seen that idiot and his friends up at the pool. A frown came over her face as she realized that that most likely meant he'd just checked in, and would likely be at the resort for about a week, if not longer. She didn't really want to leave, but if she had to keep running into that guy again, well…

Thumbing her phone on, she glanced at a couple of emails as she walked into the bathroom. She made note of a couple she needed to respond to before stripping off her damp wrap and bikini and leaving them in a pile on the floor. Shivering a bit in the AC of the suite, she stepped into the large glass enclosed shower and hit the button to turn the water on. Closing her eyes she smiled as the spray hit her from multiple directions at once, already set to just the right temperature and stored in the little computer doodad hooked up to the shower. She'd have to see about having something like it installed in her shower back in LA, because it was awesome.

Before she could really start to enjoy the water, or even the shower, she heard her phone ringing and groaned. She knew that Laura, her assistant and the only person allowed to call her while she was taking her me time, wouldn't be calling unless it was something really important. Grumbling slightly under her breath she turned the shower off and stepped out, pausing only long enough to dry her hands on a nearby towel before grabbing her phone.

Only to end up frowning at the number, which was most definitely NOT Laura's, though it was an LA area code, she knew that much. Slightly hesitantly she thumbed the accept icon and asked, "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Beca Mitchell?" A male voice asked over the phone. He didn't sound like a creepy stalker, but then again Beca didn't really know what they sounded like. His voice sounded slightly older, and a bit distinguished, with a ring of authority to it as though this person was used to people answering questions when he asked them.

"Uhhh… Maybe, who are you?" Beca shot back quickly, her instinctive defenses jumping up and making her tone maybe a little sharper than it normally would have been. She could tell that she'd caught the man off guard as he paused for a second. She didn't relent, though, and simply waited patiently through the silence in order to figure out who'd gotten the number for her personal cell. A number that only about four people had.

"Well, if this is Ms. Mitchell, which I suspect, I need you to confirm that for me. I'm Dr. Edwards at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and you're listed as an Emergency Contact for your friend, Stacie Conrad. She's been in a car accident."

* * *

Chloe was crying again.

Aubrey hated it when Chloe was crying. It was, quite possibly, the literal worst thing that the blond could even contemplate.

Sighing, she took her keys out of the door to their apartment and silently slid them into her purse. She wasn't sure exactly where in the apartment the redhead was, but based on the sounds she heard, the terrible, awful, miserable, wretched, despondent sounds she guessed that Chloe was still in the same spot she'd left her this morning when the blond had left for work. In other words, lying in bed, wrapped in blankets and surrounded by pillows.

What made it even worse was that Aubrey felt at least a small bit of responsibility for the redhead having been shut away nearly constantly for the last week. She had been the one to press Stacie when she noticed the brunette being evasive. Of course, she'd tried to do it in private in the kitchen. But Chloe had picked the wrong time to come in for more wine…

Thankfully she could assuage her guilt with the fact that if there was anyone who deserved the blame, really, it was that despicable midget and her deplorable habit of running away from anything that, well, anything really.

That first day, nearly two weeks earlier, when Chloe had thought she was going to be fired, and Stacie was preparing to kick Beca's ass if the hobbit had been responsible hadn't been too bad. Stacie reported, about half an hour after going on radio silence because the Oompa Loompa had arrived, that brunch was over. She'd said that Beca had had to go back to work, but that they could meet up for dinner that night to discuss the details of the conversation. She finished it off saying that while it didn't go well, it hadn't gone terribly either.

Ha! Maybe even a double "Ha!"

But they didn't learn the truth until later. Stacie had managed to play it cool for basically the rest of the week. It helped her that they didn't really talk about Beca much in general, so she didn't have to avoid the topic that often. It wasn't until Chloe was at work on Friday that it began to unravel.

The redhead saw that on the schedule that Beca had cancelled what, with a little snooping into past schedules from Chloe, was normally a very regular appointment. Looking forward she saw that Beca had cancelled not just for that day, but for the next few as well. It, obviously, raised a red flag.

So she asked Stacie about it the following night when all three of them had gotten together for their usual weekly meal. Stacie tried to deflect, but Chloe and Aubrey were paying more attention this time. Eventually under an onslaught of questions from the two of them, the truth came out. The meeting had gone quite terribly, actually. So terribly that Beca had apparently fled the continent. That was when Chloe had become the quivering ball of sadness that was currently crying for the umpteenth time in her bedroom right now.

Aubrey had tried cheering her up, using all the usual methods. Trashy tv, singing some of the old classics, flowers, chocolate, wine, insulting Beca for being a coward and unworthy of Chloe's heartache… Nothing really helped. Oddly enough, the last one seemed to be detrimental. So despite it making Aubrey feel better to berate the girl, she'd held off on more of that.

Bree knew that it wasn't entirely fair, too. Beca was a known flight risk, but the blond had hoped that the girl had grown a little bit since their last face to face. She still felt pretty awful about the whole ordeal, but it was getting more and more difficult to remember that, in all actuality, she was the bad guy in their story.

Taking a deep breath she glanced at her watch and noted that Stacie would probably be over in about forty-five minutes for dinner. Walking across the room she hung her purse on one of the hooks that she'd insisted they hang specifically for this purpose and moved back towards the sounds of sadness emanating from her roommate and best friend.

Tapping softly on Chloe's door she heard the sniffling quiet down a touch and hoped that that meant that Chloe might be fit for company. Hearing a muffled response which she assumed to be Chloe telling her to come in, Aubrey opened the door enough to stick her head. She spotted the redhead about where she'd expected her, sitting in bed and surrounded by blankets. Smiling gently at the tearful face she said quietly, "Hey sweetie. I just thought I'd remind you that Stace is coming over in a little bit for dinner…"

"Oh… Is it that late? I, uh… Yeah, I'll, um, take a shower I guess…"Chloe said after a minute when Aubrey's words sunk in. She didn't move, however, and just looked around her room looking slightly confused. Aubrey kept the smile on her face as she entered the room and walked over towards Chloe's vanity and grabbed her towel, what she'd known the redhead was looking for. Chloe smiled up at her thankfully and untangled herself from the blankets. When she was standing Aubrey pulled her in for a hug.

"Maybe Stacie heard from the Hobbit today. It's been almost two weeks, she must have … I mean, we can ask Stace when she gets her." Aubrey said, though she wasn't hopeful. She knew that if the brunette had heard from the wayward DJ she'd have let them know about it ASAP. Still, it gave Chloe a hopeful look, and that was what the blond had been going for. She held the hug for a minute, before letting her go and shoving her playfully towards the door. Physical contact was always one of the things that usually cheered Chloe up and they both knew it. As Chloe made her way towards the bathroom the blond added playfully, "And a shower is a great idea. You know how much Stacie loves my cooking and it would be a shame the wonderful meal was ruined by Pig Pen showing up…"

"I am not Pig Pen! I'm Snoopy, cute and adorable!" Chloe said, turning to glare at Aubrey from the bathroom door. But her heart obviously wasn't in it as the fierce look faded before the redhead had even turned to go inside. Aubrey sighed turning towards the living room, her worried mind thinking about Chloe's favorite meal and if they had all the ingredients she needed.

Thankfully she'd stocked up on all the necessary ingredients a few days earlier after her talk with the redhead about how this was really Beca's problem, and how annoyingly stubborn the girl could be didn't go as planned. It had cheered Aubrey up as pointing out how Beca was wrong and she was right usually did, her remorse over the events of Semi-Finals four years earlier didn't erase the fact that Aubrey liked to compete, and more importantly she liked to win. So getting a little victory over the absent brunette had cheered her up.

Of course, she hadn't really had a chance to get into stride with her ranting, or to her mind, well-reasoned arguments, before Chloe had gotten upset and stomped off. But Aubrey had been on the debate team enough to know how to argue both sides of a topic, so even without Chloe there she'd still managed to basically have the conversation. Still, it had prompted her to make an unscheduled trip to the store in case she needed a backup plan, which, as it turns out, she did.

Shaking her head again she started prepping everything, and by the time Chloe emerged from her room after the shower things were starting to come together. One look at the redhead, though, showed that while the shower may have cleaned the exterior, it had only been surface deep. Chloe had found a pair of old Barden University sweatpants and a baggy, long-sleeved shirt that was about as unflattering a piece of clothing as she'd seen Chloe wear ever. Her messy pile of red hair was haphazardly arranged in a messy bun on top of her head and held in place by a pair of chopsticks. But at least she was out of her room and prepared to pretend to behave like a functioning adult.

Granted it was only for herself and Stacie, but Aubrey was happy with baby steps. When the redhead sidled into one of the stools at the island, the blond slid a few of the sliced veggies she'd been working on a few minutes earlier towards her. And while she may not have enthusiastically jumped on them like she normally would have, she at least started nibbling on them. Snagging one for herself, she used the act of munching on it to cover the small smile. Baby steps indeed.

Chloe's gaze ran over the various things that Aubrey already had made up and a smile grew on her face, a small one, but it stayed there and that made the blond's return smile brighter than it normally might have been as Chloe asked, "You're making the 'Chloe Special', aren't you?"

"Well, it felt appropriate…" Aubrey answered noncommittally. The blond knew that there was no sense in denying it, but she was curious to see if Chloe would take the bait and tease her back a little. She was hoping that the prospect of company, especially if Stacie had news, would help shake things up.

"I'm glad you're finally recognizing just how–"Chloe started to say, her eyes alight for the first time that Aubrey could remember in days. Whatever she was planning on saying cut off abruptly, however, when Aubrey's phone rang suddenly, vibrating noisily against the surface of the island. Expecting to see Stacie's face and number pop up, Aubrey frowned at the unknown number with an LA area code.

"Hello, Aubrey Posen speaking." She said in her usual clipped tone after a moment's pause prior to hitting accept.

"Hello Ms. Posen, I'm Dr. Edwards from Cedars Sinai Medical Center. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I have you listed as an emergency contact for one Stacie Conrad. I'm afraid to say that she was in a car accident earlier this evening." Aubrey felt her stomach drop as a chill of horror descended on her suddenly. Her reaction was no doubt obvious to anyone watching, which included her sharp-eyed, redheaded companion.

"Who is it? What's wrong, Bree?!" Chloe mouthed, panic coming onto her face at the look that was no doubt on Bree's. The blond shook her head, not really wanting to explain until she had all the facts. Turning her back to Chloe, she started to speak, but found that her voice had somehow failed her. Clearing her throat she took a deep breath before trying again.

"I… That's… Holy crap. What happened? Is she ok? What can you tell me?" The blond finally asked after a moment of panic. Aubrey found that somehow her brain, which was currently gibbering in panic, had apparently disconnected from her mouth after a moment of floundering and, as expected, got to the crux of the matter.

"I'm sorry, but I can't discuss patient details over the phone. This call is more curtesy and to inform you that she's currently in the ICU at Cedars Sinai if you want to come check on her yourself." The doctor said, and Aubrey was a little surprised to hear sincere sympathy in his voice, as though he did regret not being able to divulge details. The blond, however, knew that there was some pretty strict laws in place against that and wasn't surprised that he was being close-mouthed with details.

"ICU, so that means that she isn't… We'll be there as soon as we can." Aubrey said, digging what little info she could out of the man's statement, and shutting her own worst fears down before they could get on a roll. The doctor made a noise of agreement, but Aubrey was already hanging up and turning back to see Chloe in full on panic mode. She was standing now, gripping the counter so tightly that her knuckles were white. Pure terror was etched into every line of her face. She opened her mouth, to scream, cry, or demand answers Aubrey didn't know, but the blond spoke quickly to interrupt her and defuse things before they got out of hand, "It's ok, sort of. Stacie was in a car accident, apparently. She's at Cedars Sinai in the ICU. They wouldn't tell me any more than that over the phone. Go, get dressed, we'll head down there now."

"Cedars… That's… That's the trauma center, Bree. Why would they take her there if she was 'alright'?" Chloe asked, a little terror easing from her visage, but still not convinced that everything was ok. Aubrey couldn't blame her, and she'd been hoping that the redhead wouldn't have caught onto the name of the local trauma center. Well, that cat was out of the bag…

"I don't know, tons of reasons. None of which will we find out if you don't move your ass, Red." Aubrey snapped, feeling immediately remorseful for her tone, but the sharp whip crack of her command voice from when she'd lead the Bellas sure got Chloe moving. The redhead jumped at first and seemed to move almost instinctively towards the door before she paused as though thinking to argue. Aubrey just clapped her hands once, though, and that finally did it, with Chloe just swallowing her protests and dashing towards her bedroom.

After Chloe was gone, Aubrey felt herself sag against the counter as her own rigid control waned for a moment. The doctor's tone hadn't sounded as though their presence was direly needed, but even the thought of Stacie in the hospital had weakened her knees. Taking a deep breath to regain control of herself, Aubrey methodically went about reversing the progress she'd made towards making their meal. Thankfully there wasn't much to do, mostly just turning a few things off and then packing the food away into the fridge.

After that was taken care of, she stepped into the living room to wait for Chloe. A quick glance in the mirror near the door, specifically placed there for last minute appearance checks before one of them left the house, showed her that the clothes she'd worn while at work today would, in a pinch, suffice. Khaki shorts and a polo shirt wasn't really her normal go to outfit choice, but she didn't feel like taking the time to change. Instead she put back on the shoes she'd worn and was just getting ready to holler at Chloe when the redhead emerged looking far more put together than Aubrey had seen since the last time her roommate had gone to work.

The drive to the hospital was made in relative silence, only the car's radio to keep them company. For all her insistence on "traditional Bellas music" while she'd lead the group, her personal listening taste was a bit more modern which made it easier to find a station that they both could agree on. Traffic was, as expected, bad, but the trip seemed to both fly by and drag on, but within an hour Aubrey was striding up to the information desk at the ER. The nurse there looked up at them as they approached and Aubrey saw her quickly assess that neither of them were bleeding or otherwise in need of immediate medical attention.

"Evening, welcome to Cedars Sinai ER. How can I help you?" The middle-aged woman, Stephanie if her name tag was an indicator, asked sounding a little bored. Aubrey noticed that, even though she was looking up and talking to them, the woman's gaze occasionally dipped back to one of the monitor's in front of her and she never really stopped typing. The blond couldn't help but begrudge Stephanie a bit of respect for her multitasking, but it was really an unconscious thing as her main focus was elsewhere.

"Yes, hello. Our friend, our sister, was in an accident earlier and was brought here. A Dr. Edwards contacted us as we're her emergency contacts." Aubrey said, her voice steady as she implied a greater connection with Stacie than perhaps strictly existed. Then again, they were all Bellas sisters, and that bond lasted for life, but the nurse didn't need to know the details.

"I see. What's the patient's name?" The nurse asked, her steady typing pausing as she, if Aubrey had to guess, switched programs and waited.

"Stacie Conrad." Aubrey replied quickly, and watched as the nurse typed it in. As she typed and then looked over whatever information came up she tried to gauge the nurse's reactions. The blond was having a hard time concentrating, however, as Chloe was standing right beside her with a death grip on her arm. The redhead was also almost vibrating with nerves and it took a lot of focus for Aubrey to not snap at her.

"Ah, yes. She's here…" The nurse said, her eyes flicking over the information to pick out the salient details. Aubrey watched, but couldn't really tell what she thought of whatever the screen was telling her. At the least, Aubrey hoped, the news wouldn't be her worst fear. After a few seconds reviewing the information, the nurse gestured out of the ER's interior entrance towards the main areas of the hospital and said, "She was transferred out of the ICU about 30 minutes ago. She's up in room 1206 and is ok to receive, uh, family and visitors. Check in at the information desk down that hall and around to the right, then it's just up the elevators. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, that's everything, thank you." Aubrey said and was sure that the lady could hear the note of relief in her voice at hearing that Stacie was at least out of the ICU. Hopefully that would be a good sign. Walking quickly beside Chloe, the two followed the instructions and found the check-in desk and got visitor badges to stick onto their shirts and then went up the elevator.

Upstairs was fairly quiet, which was another good sign as far as the blond was concerned. It didn't take long before they were able to find room 1206. The blinds were pulled and the door was closed, but Aubrey stepped forward and knocked softly and was immensely relieved to hear a muffled, "Come in."

Stepping into the room Aubrey stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she cleared the curtain. She felt Chloe step into her back, obviously the redhead hadn't expected the sudden stop, but Bree couldn't help it. Taking in the sight of Stacie on the bed, hooked up to beeping machines and looking like she'd, well, like she'd just survived a car accident had locked her brain up.

Looking frail and beaten, Stacie's face was a mess of bruises on her left side, what little of it wasn't covered in bandages. An IV was threaded into her left arm, and while that arm looked better than what Aubrey could see of Stacie's right, it was her right leg that drew immediate attention. From nearly her hip down to her ankle was a fresh, white cast clearly visible as her leg was held above the blanket in a sling.

The slightly choked off sob that Aubrey let out involuntarily was the only sound in the room to be heard aside from the beeping of machines. It also drew the attention of the girl laying in the bed. Stacie's eyes opened and she turned her head towards the noise, her eyes immediately connecting with Aubrey's and the blond woman felt a rush of relief that the brunette was at least awake and responsive.

"Oh my god, Stacie… What did you do to yourself?" Chloe asked, having edged around Aubrey to where she could finally take in the sight of the brunette on the bed. Aubrey did catch the sidelong glance that her involuntary noise had drawn, but it was secondary in her mind at the moment as she hurried over to Stacie's bedside. Chloe mirrored her actions, taking the other side of the bed even though there was some equipment in the way.

"You think I look bad, you should see my car…" The brunette said, her voice weak and shaky. She even tried to laugh, typical fucking Stacie, but it ended quickly as she groaned in pain and winced. Her right arm moved to cover her ribs on her right side and Aubrey thought it odd to use that arm until she realize that she had taken hold of the brunette's left arm as soon as she'd gotten close to the bed.

"You're in pain." Aubrey said, torn between wanting to run out into the hall and demand a doctor come in and help ease her pain and wanting to stay right by Stacie's side. Her indecision must have been plain for both girls to see, especially Stacie whose gaze had only flickered briefly to Chloe before returning to Aubrey's concerned eyes. Seeing pain flicker through her friend's green eyes again made up her mind for her and Aubrey was already letting go of Stacie's hand and moving as she said, "I'll go get a nurse or doctor or something. We'll get you something…"

"Bree, it's ok. Bree. Aubrey Marie Posen!" Stacie said, finally raising her voice to a weak shout to get the blond's attention just before she opened the door to the hall. Of course, it was actually more likely that the use of the blond's full name was the cause, because Stacie's shout was about as loud as Lily's freshman audition for the Bellas. Well, maybe a touch louder, but not much.

"I… I just… I was gonna…" Aubrey said, turning to face the other two girls in the room. Stacie was looking annoyed, and perhaps a little in pain. Chloe on the other hand was looking confused, her gaze drifting between the brunette on the bed and the blond by the door with a curious expression on her face.

"It's ok, Bree. I'm not in that much pain, it's just that laughing hurts, and it was the first time I'd done it since I woke up so I wasn't expecting it." Stacie said, a sympathetic smile for her friends. Aubrey smiled back and walked back over to the brunette's bedside, this time carefully avoiding taking Stacie's hand. Chloe, never one to be silent for long, decided that that was a good opening to ask about what happened.

"So, uh, what happened, Stace? I mean, you look, well…" The redhead said, her voice trailing off as she gestured to the mangled state that Stacie was in. Aubrey nodded her agreement and they pulled up chairs to the brunette's bedside as she told them what had happened. How she'd just left the hospital, was in fact on a couple blocks away, when a drunk in a lifted pickup truck blew threw a red light and plowed into her car. The EMTs, once they'd arrived, took one look at the scene and her injuries and immediately routed her here, the closest trauma center.

"Well, I'm not gonna lie, I freaked out a little bit when I first got the call. Especially because they wouldn't tell me anything over the phone." Aubrey said, patting Stacie's hand as she leaned against the bed. The brunette had given a quick account of her injuries that was mostly medical jargon, but Aubrey caught enough to realize that she was probably going to be fine. A few days in the hospital, maybe a week max, and she'd be out. A thought suddenly occurred to the blond which caused her to sit up and squint at Stacie, "Also, how do you know my middle name?"

"Uhhh. You kind of told me…" Stacie said a bit sheepishly. Aubrey felt her eyes squint more as she racked her brain to remember telling Stacie her middle name. She'd only been their coach for the one year, though she'd kept in contact with them after she'd left Barden and helped as much as she could with coaching from afar.

"I did? When? Cuz I don't remember…" The blond couldn't come up with the memory, and her words just made Stacie blush. Which in and of itself was a fairly rare site. The brunette usually had no shame. Of course, that immediately got both Bree and Chloe's attention.

"Well, yeah, you wouldn't… You remember during my freshmen year? The one party that we all went to over at Sigma Beta Theta? Then afterwards, after you saw some of the Trebles hitting on me, you dragged us all back to your guys' apartment?" Stacie asked, looking at Aubrey from under her lashes. The blond nodded and Chloe chuckled at the memory. It had been quite the evening and some people had obviously had more fun than others, if the amount of empty cups they'd found the following morning had been any indication. Stacie smiled and continued, "Yeah, well, you were pretty wasted and, well, it just came up. I told you mine too."

"I know yours, Stacie Eleanor Conrad. It was on your application to join the Bellas." Aubrey said, but she said it with a smile. It touched her that Stacie had remembered her middle name, told during a night of heavy drinking, all those years ago.

"Oh, speaking of epic nights of drinking…" Chloe started up, leaning back in her chair as she got ready to ride out the remaining visiting hours. Aubrey, taking one look at the two girls around her, realized that while there might be other places she'd rather be, there wasn't anyone else she'd rather be with than these two. Laughing at the remembered antics, and some she'd only heard about after the fact, the blond didn't realize that she'd taken Stacie's hand in her own again.

Nor did she notice that Stacie's thumb was tracing small circles on the back of said hand.

* * *

Beca yawned and let her head fall back against the headrest of the backseat. Her eyes closed of their own accord, but the brunette didn't need to be able to see to tell that they were still in morning traffic leaving LAX. Like, really early morning traffic. It was one of the things she hated about the city. It seemed like no matter what time she went out there was going to be traffic.

Well, at least she didn't have to drive herself. Which was probably for everyone's benefit because she hadn't been able to sleep a wink on the flight over. People always said, "Take the red-eye, you can just sleep on the plan…"

Bullshit. Even with her ear-covering, sound-dampening, music producing headphones clamped tightly over her ears and the oh so comfortable first class seat providing her ample room to curl up like a cat, sleep had evaded her. Then again, all the comforts of the seat and the plane and neighbor noise canceling effects of her headphones couldn't stop her from worrying about her best friend.

She'd tried everything she could to get some info out of the dumb doctor that had called, but he had been tight-lipped. Talking about some hippo or something, and how it prevented him from telling any sensitive information to anyone but a very select list of people. Well, fuck that hippo, Beca had told him. That's what they make really big guns for, right?

Wait, you probably aren't supposed to shoot hippos. They're, like, endangered or something probably, yeah? Well, fuck that hippo anyway. And what the hell was it doing in the hospital. Bloody unsafe if you asked her. Which no one had.

The ride to the hospital was fairly quiet, which helped Beca doze and was much appreciated. Worries about hippos aside, the brunette had been greatly concerned about Stacie. The lack of solid information hadn't helped. She'd even had Laura try to go to the hospital last night for information, but all her assistant had been able to find out was that Stacie was in the ICU, which didn't do Beca's nerves any good.

Naturally she'd booked the first flight back, and probably paid through the nose for it, but she didn't care. Money was one thing she probably never needed to worry about again, and as Forest Gump had said, "Well that's one less thing."

Yeah, she'd seen the stupid movie. Stacie had made her after the busty brunette had said, "Run Forest, run" to Beca a while back and the shorter girl had just stared at her blankly. It took a few weeks, and some alcohol, but Stacie had eventually gotten Beca to watch the movie and it had been kind of cute. Well, it had had its moments. That Jenny was kind of a slut, that's for sure.

Regardless, Beca had snorted out a laugh at the comment about the money and Stacie had eyed her quizzically. Later, after Stacie learned the truth about what Beca had been doing in LA since she'd left Barden, well it became obvious why Beca had reacted the way she had to that line. It had actually been the revelation that Beca's success in the music industry hadn't really altered the way Stacie interacted with her that had helped Beca to separate her growing friendship with Stacie compared to how she felt regarding the rest of the Bellas.

She didn't care that Beca was basically loaded now. She never took advantage of it or asked her for money. She did try to get Beca to go out shopping, but that was mainly because she heartily disapproved of the look that Beca cultivated. In fact, on several occasions Stacie could be heard repeating, "Unless you're living in Seattle, Beca, grunge died a long time ago. Let those clothes have a proper funeral, please!"

The bump of the car going into the parking lot jostled Beca from her eyes closed musing on her friend and caused her to open her eyes and look around. Sure enough, the gleaming glass walls of the hospital were rising above her and Beca glanced down at her phone to check the time. LAX wasn't too far from Cedars-Sinai, but with traffic the way it usually was the driver had made good time to the Beverly Hills hospital. Thanking him for the lift, even though it was technically his job, Beca tapped a few times on her phone to add in a nice tip for the driver. There was a way that she managed to keep up her 5-star Uber rating, and big tips helped a lot.

After that was finished Beca turned towards the entrance of the hospital and had to pause to take a few deep breaths. She hated hospitals. Hated being in them, hated having to go to them. It wasn't like anyone close to her had died, or anything, just the sterile rigidness of hospitals and the knowledge that somewhere inside someone could be dying really freaked her out. Still, she was here for a reason, so no time like the present to get about it.

It took her another five minutes or so before she managed to actually get inside. As she made her way to the check-in desk she kept an eye out for these notorious hippos but didn't see any. Maybe they were on the upper floors. That'd just be mean, though, making hippos go up all those stairs. Maybe they had special rooms in the basement. Yeah, that made more sense.

"Hi, visiting?" The bored looking security guard at the desk asked her as she stepped up. Even from her albeit short vantage point she could see that most of his attention was on the bank of security monitors and not really on her. Then again, he probably saw a hundred people a day checking in like this, so it was all routine for him.

"Uh, yeah. Ummm, Stacie Conrad." She said, slightly nervously. For all Beca knew Stacie was still in the ICU, though unless she was in serious danger they'd hopefully still let her have visitors. She watched as the guard took his attention from the monitors and turned to his computer. He typed for a second and then read something from his screen before hitting another key. Beca waited on eggshells.

"Here's your visitor's badge, she's in room 1206. Enjoy your stay." The guard said robotically as though he had a hundred times already today and probably would a hundred more. Beca let out her breath in a single, long sigh. She wasn't sure where room "1206" was exactly, but the routineness of it all made her think that things weren't as bad as her worst fears kept telling her.

Slapping the badge on her shirt, she hefted her laptop case onto her shoulder and grabbed the small rolling luggage she'd bought on the Islands to take home the few pieces of clothing and personal items she'd gathered up while on her vacation. She felt a little awkward strolling through the hospital with them, but she hadn't wanted to take the time to head home and drop them off before coming to see her friend.

The elevators were easy to find and the ride up was smooth, but Beca found her foot tapping impatiently at the floor of the elevator the entire ride. The one other person in the car with her glanced curiously at her, but Beca had had years of practice ignoring the looks of others and staying in her own world.

Stepping off at the twelfth floor she saw directions on the wall that soon had her standing in front of an open door through which she could hear some silly morning show playing on the tv. Her trip through the floor had felt like a balm as it was immediately apparent that whatever this floor was, it was not an intensive care unit. That reassured Beca that her friend's condition was, if not good, then at least not bad.

"You know, if you really wanted me to come visit you, you could have just– Jesus!" Beca, who had started joking with the brunette as she walked into the room, stopped abruptly as she got a good look at the mass of black and purple swelling, the leg in full cast, and the bandages covering Stacie's normally angelic visage.

"I mean, you could just call be Stacie, but I guess Jesus works too, Bec." Stacie said, having turned towards the noise as Beca spoke while entering. Beca's eyes, after having taken in the mangled state of Stacie's appearance, found the brunette's green-eyed gaze looking directly at her. Beca swallowed, partly in relief that her friend seemed to be well enough to joke around, but also because that gaze told her that Stacie might very well be pissed at her for up and leaving two weeks earlier.

"Well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to call out that name with you…" Beca said, trying to keep the joking tone up as she left her rolling luggage just inside the room. The privacy curtain was mostly closed, but Beca figured she'd be able to keep an eye on it from Stacie's bedside. And if she couldn't, well, it was just some random clothes and things that she'd bought because she'd impulsively left for Hawai'i without packing. Walking to the nearside of Stacie's bed, Beca noticed that while the bit of humor may have added a slight twitch of a smile, the brunette still didn't seem happy. Putting on a concerned look, Beca said, "You do look like you went through hell, though. What the fuck happened?"

"Some drunk idiot." Stacie replied, slightly coldly. Not icy, which was a good sign as far as Beca was concerned. Stacie gave a cursory account of the accident, with Beca making the appropriate noises at the appropriate moments. After the injured brunette finished her tale, though, an uncomfortable pause fell over the pair of them that had Beca shifting where she stood until she finally had to break the silence.

"Well, that sucks. I, um, I know that you loved that car…" Beca said, rather lamely. She knew that all the sympathy in the world wasn't going to get her off the hook, though. Realizing that, despite her earlier comment and asking after the accident, Beca hadn't checked on her friend. Since she was desperate for any form of conversation, she asked, "Ummm, how, uh, how are you?"

"Hurt, Beca. Really hurt." Stacie said quietly. Beca was moving immediately, heading toward the door. She missed the rolling of Stacie's eyes, though, as her brain hadn't fully engaged. She was already starting to tell Stacie that she'd get a doctor for more pain meds when the brunette in the bed called her name, "Beca! Jesus, what is it with … Nevermind. I'm not… They don't have medications for what hurt me. Unless they can perform a Beca-ectomy."

"Oh, uh… A what?" Beca had gotten as far as the privacy curtain before Stacie called her back. She knew that her face looked puzzled because the word sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. Slowly she started to walk back to the bed as Stacie rolled her eyes.

"Jesus, Bec, you really don't pay attention to me when I talk about my studies, do you?" Stacie asked with a sigh. She wasn't really that upset about it, Beca heard the friendly, teasing tone in her voice, but she just shrugged sheepishly anyway. Shaking her head, Stacie said, "A Beca-ectomy. As in the surgical excision of a Beca… You hurt me, Beca. You just… You left, and you didn't call or text or anything. That isn't… That isn't what friends do."

"Oh… I… Ummm, sorry?" Beca said, now fully aware that her friend wasn't pissed, but was actually saddened, felt her usual awkwardness in dealing with social situations. She may have gotten better at dealing with people, an occupational hazard as far as she was concerned, but she was still Beca Mitchell. Stacie just sighed again and Beca opened her mouth to try again. Words failed to come out, so she shut it again and gathered her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she tried again, "I… Stacie. I'm sorry. Really I am. I just… You know that's my signature move when shit gets real. I run."

"I know, Bec. I really do. I just… I thought _we_ had gotten past that." Stacie said, and the emphasis just drove another barb in and twisted it. Beca had thought they were too. Stacie was her friend, her best friend in LA. Her only friend, really. And she had just done a runner. It was worse that it hadn't even occurred to her until now, either. It seemed, though, that Stacie wasn't finished twisting the barb as she went on, "Seriously, Beca. I thought we'd moved past that. But no, the first sign of … trouble, and you left. Abandoned me without a word. Again."

"Hey! I didn't…" Beca said, her voice almost a shout at the injustice of the accusation. Of course, the idea of yelling at your best friend while she sat in a hospital bed even made Beca's social compass shudder. Catching herself she took a ragged breath before continuing in a calmer, but still fierce tone, "I didn't leave before, not first. _You_ guys left _me_! You abandoned me after that performance!"

"Beca… We never abandoned you. We just… forgot our way for a time." The soft answering voice came not from the girl in front of her, but from behind. And it was a voice that Beca knew all too well, one that echoed in her dreams and haunted her nightmares. Turning slowly as panic rose inside her, Beca saw incontrovertible proof that her memory of that voice hadn't changed in six years.

Her answer, when it came, was a quiet, choked croak of a whisper, "Chloe…"


End file.
